Nigeria are champions and Cameroon loses event

A lot has happened in African football recently. On Saturday Nigeria became champions in the Women´s African Cup of Nations by beating South Africa on penalties in the final. Both nations are through to the World cup next year together with Cameroon who grabbed the last World cup spot by finishing third after a 4-2-win against Mali.

When it comes to the men´s edition of the competition, Cameroon have been stripped of hosting the event. This is because of delays in the preparation for the competition. According to BBC, Morocco, South Africa and Egypt are now candidates to host the tournament next year.

Time for the Women´s African Cup of Nations!

On saturday it´s time for the Women´s Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana. Eight teams will compete for the honour of calling themselves the best national team on the continent. The final will be played on december 1. The top three teams advance to the World cup next year.

The eight teams are divided into two groups.
Group A
Ghana, Algeria, Mali, Cameroon
Group B
Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea

Nigeria are defending champions and have won the competion ten times! Only Equatorial Guinea has also managed to win the tournament (two times). One of the most shining star players of this year´s tournament is Asisat Oshoala who has been named Africa´s best player multiple times.

Fatoumata Diawara in Stockholm

The Malian star Fatoumata Diawara will perform a concert in Stockholm on November 4th. Buy tickets here too see her show. https://www.konserthuset.se/en.

The World Cup Is Over

The world cup is over for this time. The african teams unfortunately did not perform so well in this tournament. Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal and Nigeria were all eliminated in the group stage.

Senegal came closest, but were eliminated due to the fact that Japan had fewer cards. Senegal is the first team in history to be eliminated because of the fair play rule.

Egypt´s poor performances at the World cup is a mystery. The national team has won the African cup of nations a record seven times. In club competions, the Egyptian teams Al Ahly and Zamalek have won most titles (eight for Al Ahly and five for Zamalek) in the African Champions league. Despite this success on continental level, the national team have only appeared in three World cups and didn´t qualify for the second round in the 2018 edition.

But we shouldn´t forget that many players in the winning French team have African backgrounds. Lets name those in the staring eleven: The central defender Samuel Umtiti was born in Cameroon, midfielder Paul Pogba´s parents are from Guinea, midfielder Ngolo Kanté has parents from Mali, Kylian Mbappé has a father from Cameroon and a mother from Algeria and Blaise Matuidi has an Angolan father and a mother from D.R. Congo.