Banyana Banyana and Nigeria renew rivalry in crucial World Cup play-off battle

Banyana Banyana will face old rivals Nigeria in Casablanca on Wednesday for one of CAF’s two places in the intercontinental play-offs for the World Cup. The match will be played at Moulay Rachid Stadium at 22:00 South Africa time.

The meeting brings together the winners of the last two editions of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon), but both sides now have to take an additional route towards the World Cup after quarter-final defeats at this year’s tournament in Morocco.

South Africa were beaten by the hosts, while Nigeria lost to Cameroon. The four teams that reached the Wafcon semi-finals secured automatic qualification for the World Cup, leaving Banyana Banyana and Nigeria to compete for a place in the intercontinental play-offs.

The play-offs will be held in two stages between November and February next year. They will ultimately decide the final three qualifiers for the event in Brazil.

The preliminary phase will involve six teams: two from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), two from CAF, one from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and the lower-ranked team from South America’s Conmebol.

Those six teams will gather at a centralised venue during November and December. They will be placed into three tiers and will play a set of predetermined matches.

Teams from the same confederation will not be allowed to meet in the preliminary phase. The two strongest teams from that stage will progress to the final phase.

They will then join four teams that have been given byes into the second phase. Those sides will comprise two teams from Concacaf, one from Uefa and the higher-ranked Conmebol team.

The final phase will be played as single knockout matches. The three winners will claim the remaining World Cup qualification places.

The draw will be based on the latest Fifa rankings. The three highest-ranked teams will be seeded into separate pathways, with the remaining teams drawn against them.

As in the preliminary phase, countries from the same confederation cannot be placed in the same pathway. That restriction is designed to prevent teams from the same regional governing body meeting during the play-off route.

For Banyana Banyana and Nigeria, the immediate priority is the match in Casablanca. Their meeting resumes a rivalry between two of Africa’s most successful women’s national teams, with the result determining which country remains in contention for the intercontinental qualification process.

The fixture is being played at Moulay Rachid Stadium, with kick-off scheduled for 22:00 South Africa time.

Ndebele is in Morocco courtesy of Banyana Banyana’s sponsor, Sasol.