MATCH FACTS: Morocco, Zambia compete in TotalEnergies CAF WAFCON opener

Hosts Morocco kick off their TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) campaign against Zambia at the Olympic Stadium in Rabat on 5 July, with kick-off scheduled for 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT).

Historically, tournament hosts have enjoyed strong starts. Across the previous 12 editions of WAFCON, hosts have won their opening match on 11 occasions. The only exception was South Africa in 2004, who suffered a 3-0 defeat to Ghana.

Nine of those 12 opening matches saw the hosts keep a clean sheet. The only times they conceded were in South Africa’s 2004 loss and Nigeria’s 4-2 win over Equatorial Guinea in 2006. South Africa’s 2-1 victory over Tanzania in 2010 is the only host opening win where they conceded.

The biggest win by a host in their opening match was Nigeria’s emphatic 8-0 thrashing of Morocco in 1998.

Since South Africa’s loss in 2004, each of the last eight hosts has won their opening match. Furthermore, since 2010, the last six hosts have started their campaigns with a clean sheet.

Hosts have gone on to reach the final on eight occasions. Nigeria won on home soil in 1998, 2002, and 2006, while Equatorial Guinea triumphed in 2008 and 2012. More recently, Cameroon (2016) and Morocco (2022) reached the final but lost, as did South Africa in 2000.

Head-to-Head: Morocco vs Zambia

This will be the first meeting between Morocco and Zambia at WAFCON.

Both sides reached the semi-finals in the previous edition in 2022, also hosted by Morocco. The hosts finished runners-up, while Zambia claimed bronze after beating Nigeria in the third-place match.

It will be Morocco’s third encounter with a Southern African nation at the tournament. In 2022, they beat Botswana 2-1 in the quarterfinals before losing 2-1 to South Africa in the final.

For Zambia, this will be their second time facing a host nation at WAFCON; in 2014, they lost 2-0 to Namibia in the group stage. It is also their second clash against a North African side—at the 2022 finals, they beat Tunisia 1-0 in the group stage.

Morocco will again play all group matches in Rabat. In 2022, they played all six of their games at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, near the Rabat Olympic Stadium. Zambia played only one match in Rabat in 2022—a 4-1 win over Togo at Stade Moulay Hassan—with their remaining matches held in Casablanca.

Interestingly, the two current head coaches, Jorge Vilda (Morocco) and Nora Häuptle (Zambia), previously met at the 2018 UEFA Women’s U-19 Championship. Vilda’s Spain beat Häuptle’s Switzerland 2-0 in Zug. Spain went on to win the tournament.

Morocco: Key Facts & Stats

• Morocco return as hosts and runners-up from 2022, their best finish to date.
• This is their fourth appearance at WAFCON, having previously featured in 1998 and 2000, where they exited at the group stage.
• Between 1998 and 2000, they won just once in six matches (vs Egypt in 1998).
• Their overall WAFCON record stands at: P12 W5 D2 L5.
• They’ve only drawn twice: 0-0 vs DR Congo in 1998 and 1-1 vs Nigeria in the 2022 semi-final (won on penalties).
• Their only clean sheets came in a 0-0 draw (1998), and 1-0 wins over Burkina Faso and Senegal (2022).
• They’ve scored 14 goals and conceded 27 across 12 matches.
• Morocco’s biggest win was 4-1 vs Egypt (1998). Other wins have been by one- or two-goal margins.
• Ghizlane Chebbak scored three goals in 2022, the most by a Moroccan at a single edition, netting in all three group games.
• Head coach Jorge Vilda led Spain to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup title and also oversaw a 5-0 group-stage win over Zambia in that tournament.
• Vilda has previously coached Spain to U-17 and U-19 European Championship titles.

Zambia: Key Facts & Stats

• Zambia are appearing in their fourth WAFCON after qualifying in 2014, 2018, 2022, and now 2024.
• Their best finish was third place in 2022, beating Nigeria in the bronze-medal match.
• Opening match record: P3 W1 D1 L1. Their only loss came to Namibia in 2014.
• They went winless in 2014 but have improved steadily since.
• Zambia are unbeaten in six of their last seven WAFCON matches (W3 D3 L1), the sole loss coming in the 2022 semi-finals to South Africa.
• Most common results in their WAFCON history are 1-0 and 1-1 (three matches each).
• Their biggest win came in 2018: a 5-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea, where Mary Mwakapila scored and assisted—the first Zambian to do so in a WAFCON match.
• Racheal Kundananji scored three goals at the 2018 finals—the most by a Zambian in a single edition—and matched that total in the 2024 qualifiers against Angola.
• Zambia qualified for this edition with a dominant 12-0 aggregate win over Angola in the second round, including a Barbara Banda hat-trick in the first leg.
• Banda, Africa’s top Olympic Games scorer (male or female), is making her WAFCON debut after missing the 2022 edition.
• Head coach Nora Häuptle is the first woman and first foreign coach to lead Zambia at WAFCON. She previously coached Ghana’s women’s team, helping them qualify for this tournament.

– CAF Online