WAFCON 2026: Super Falcons and 3 other favourites to reach the semifinals

The 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) has reached the stage where one mistake can end a team’s title dream and the four quarterfinals on August 8 and 9 carry an even bigger prize, Soccernet.ng reports.

As the defending champions and Africa’s number-one ranked team, the Super Falcons are tipped to reach the semifinals despite a topsy-turvy group stage campaign. Still, Justine Madugu’s girls must first overcome a tricky Cameroon on the pitch in a quarterfinal schedule that involves six other nations. Each must win a single knockout match to move into the final four, but victory also brings automatic qualification for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil. The four losing quarterfinalists will instead enter a playoff route for the remaining African places.

The knockout stage begins with Côte d’Ivoire facing Algeria and hosts Morocco taking on defending champions South Africa on Saturday, August 8. Nigeria then meet Cameroon on Sunday before Ghana face surprise package Malawi later that day.

The predictions favour the teams with stronger tournament records, greater experience and, in some cases, home advantage. But the group stage has already shown that WAFCON 2026 can punish any side that takes an opponent lightly.

WAFCON quarterfinal: Côte d’Ivoire vs Algeria

Côte d’Ivoire have one of the strongest cases to reach the semifinals after going through Group B without a defeat. The Ivorians opened their campaign with a 2-0 victory over Burkina Faso before producing one of the most dramatic matches of the group stage against South Africa. They led 2-0 after Grace Sery scored in the 18th and 36th minutes, only for the defending champions to fight back. Thembi Kgatlana pulled one…