Defending champions Nigeria will be aiming to keep their 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title defence alive when they face Zambia in a crucial Group C encounter at the Al Madina Stadium in Rabat on Saturday night.
The Super Falcons head into the contest under pressure after suffering a surprise 3-2 defeat to tournament debutants Malawi in their opening match, while Zambia announced themselves as title contenders with an emphatic 6-0 demolition of Egypt.
The contrasting results leave Nigeria needing a positive result to boost their hopes of reaching the knockout stage, while Zambia can seal qualification with victory if Malawi avoid defeat against Egypt.
Saturday’s encounter will be the fifth WAFCON meeting between both sides and the third consecutive edition in which they have faced each other, the CAF website noted in a report.
History, however, favours the nine-time African champions, who have won three of the previous four meetings and outscored Zambia 15-1 in those matches.
Nigeria recorded 6-0 and 4-0 victories in the group stage in 2014 and 2018 respectively before Zambia claimed a 1-0 win in the third-place play-off in 2022. The Super Falcons responded by thrashing the Copper Queens 5-0 in the quarter-finals at the last edition.
Despite that dominant record, the Super Falcons face an unwanted piece of history if they fail to win.
In the Malawi shock post-match report, Super Falcons head coach Justin Madugu described Nigeria’s shock defeat to debutants Malawi as a timely wake-up call, insisting criticism over his team selection and player positioning was inevitable after a loss.
A defeat would mark Nigeria’s first-ever successive losses in the WAFCON group stage and leave the defending champions on the brink of becoming the first title holders to crash out in the group phase, should Malawi also defeat Egypt.
The defeat to Malawi also ended another long-standing record, as Nigeria conceded three goals in a WAFCON match for the first time and suffered their first loss to a tournament debutant.
Interim positives came from captain Rasheedat Ajibade and striker Uchenna Kanu, who scored Nigeria’s goals. Ajibade now has six WAFCON goals across four editions, while Kanu netted her third goal at the continental finals.
Zambia, meanwhile, arrive in a buoyant mood after recording their biggest-ever WAFCON victory.
Captain Barbra Banda stole the show with four goals against Egypt to become the first Zambian player to score a hat-trick at the tournament. The striker has now scored seven WAFCON goals and became the first player since Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala in 2016 to score four goals in a single WAFCON match.
The Copper Queens also created a tournament-high 34 attempts on goal against Egypt, with Banda registering 11 shots and Grace Chanda contributing six key passes in a commanding attacking display.
Nigeria will hope their impressive head-to-head record against Zambia can inspire another response similar to previous editions, when opening-match defeats in 2018 and 2022 were followed by victories in their second group matches.
Kick-off is scheduled for 9 p.m. local time (8 p.m. GMT) in Rabat, with both teams seeking a result that could define their paths at Morocco 2026.
