RABAT, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Malawi continued their fairytale debut at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, coming from behind to beat Ghana 2-1 in Sunday’s last quarter-final which also secured them a spot in the World Cup for the first time.
Rose Kadzere scored a 79th minute winner following Temwa Chawinga’s 12th minute equaliser after English-born striker Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah had put Ghana into a seventh minute lead.
Malawi join Algeria, Cameroon and Morocco as Africa’s four automatic qualifiers for next year's 32-team World Cup in Brazil. The four WAFCON quarter-final winners all advanced directly to the World Cup.
Malawi will meet Algeria in Wednesday’s first WAFCON semi-final, followed by hosts Morocco against Cameroon, who earlier on Sunday produced a shock when they ousted defending champions Nigeria 1-0 in Casablanca.
Myriam Nyadjou, 19, struck a superb long-range free kick to hand her country a World Cup ticket.
Nigeria had qualified for all nine previous Women’s World Cup finals but now have to try and gain entry to the finals through a complicated play-off route that offers Africa the possibility of two more representatives.
Their defeat means there will be a new WAFCON winner next week. Equatorial Guinea and South Africa are the only other countries to have won the African title.
The final is next Sunday in Rabat.
(Reporting by Mark Gleeson, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
