Algeria book historic World Cup place after dramatic Women’s AFCON quarter-final

Algeria reached the semi-finals of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations and secured a place at the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup after beating Cote d’Ivoire 2-1 in Casablanca, Morocco, on Saturday.

The result came after two costly mistakes by Cote d’Ivoire goalkeeper Aramatou Diakite, which turned the quarter-final around within six minutes of the second half.

Cote d’Ivoire had been leading 1-0 despite playing with 10 players when substitute Ines Khiri sent a seemingly harmless cross-shot towards goal from the right, just outside the Ivorian penalty area. Diakite, who plays for AS AGIR Guiberoua, misjudged the flight of the ball as she attempted to tip it over the crossbar. She missed it completely and the ball continued into the net to make it 1-1 in the 58th minute.

The goalkeeper was beaten again shortly afterwards. Rebecca Elloh then had the chance to restore Cote d’Ivoire’s lead, but struck the post from the penalty spot against Chloe N’Gazi.

Algeria immediately capitalised. Amira Ould Braham’s long-range effort from about 30 metres took a difficult bounce, and Diakite again failed to read its trajectory. The ball deceived her and found the net in the 64th minute, putting Algeria 2-1 ahead.

Those two incidents proved decisive in a match in which Cote d’Ivoire had generally produced the more threatening attacking performance. The Elephants had a goal ruled out by the video assistant referee before Ines Konan eventually gave them the lead in the first half.

However, Cote d’Ivoire’s position became more difficult before the interval when their leading forward, N’Sira Ouedraogo, was sent off for raising her foot into the face of Algeria goalkeeper Chloe N’Gazi.

Despite finishing with 1.67 expected goals compared with Algeria’s 0.23, and creating three clear chances to Algeria’s none, Cote d’Ivoire were unable to recover from the two goalkeeping errors and will now have to settle for the play-offs.

Those play-offs offer Cote d’Ivoire a route to the intercontinental play-offs for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, but their direct hopes of reaching the tournament have ended.

Algeria, meanwhile, will appear at the Women’s World Cup for the first time in their history. They will travel to Brazil next year for the global tournament and have also reached the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals for the first time.

Their semi-final will take place on Wednesday against either Malawi or Ghana. Those two sides are due to meet on Sunday.

The match underlined the continuing importance of goalkeeping in the women’s game. The position has improved considerably in recent years, having long been regarded as one of its major weaknesses, but performances remain inconsistent across the competition. On this occasion, Cote d’Ivoire paid the heaviest possible price for two errors from their last line of defence.