By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – Qualification to the 9th edition of the 2014 TN Mobile African Women’s Championship to be hosted by Namibia concluded last weekend with reigning champions Equatorial Guinea notable absentees after missing out during the qualification campaign.
With South Africa already confirmed as the first nation to qualify following the withdrawal of Comoros Island from the decisive final leg of qualification, the remaining six countries were confirmed over the past weekend. Equatorial Guinea, played out a 1-all stalemate against Ivory Coast on Saturday, but the result was not good enough and saw the defending champions denied a place for the finals with the Ivoirians going through on the away-goal rule with a 3-3 aggregate score line. Other qualifiers are Nigeria, Zambia, Algeria, Cameroon and Ghana.
Nigeria won 8-0 at home to achieve a 12-1 aggregate over Rwanda, while Algeria booked their place with a 5-3 aggregate win over North African rivals Tunisia, courtesy of a 3-2 away in Tunis in the 2nd leg. Cameroon also made sure of their place at the continental finals with a 2-1 aggregate win over Senegal, winning the 2nd leg 1-0 following their 1-1 draw in the opening leg. They will be joined by hosts Namibia and Zambia who defeated Zimbabwe 1-0 at home for an aggregate score-line of 2-0. In other action the Black Queens of Ghana saw off Ethiopia 3-0 at home to advance 5-0 on aggregate. The continental tourney gets underway in Windhoek on August 11 later this year.