Malawi book first-ever place at Women's World Cup

Malawi has continued its 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.