Match day two of the Total Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (AWCON) ended on Wednesday as Cameroon and South Africa maintained their 100% win record at the tournament to emerge front runners for a place in the last four.
The second round of games saw the indomitable lionesses of Cameroon defeat Algeria by three unreplied goals to top Group A. Asides having a 100% win record, the Lionesses have been assertive playing beautiful attacking football which has paid off for them so far in the tournament.
Despite being the front runners to qualify to the semi-final in Group A, head coach Joseph Ndoko said: “We came with one vision and that is to qualify to the final of the competition again and so far so good we are on course. Our next game is against Ghana and we are going to tackle it the same way we did in the two games we’ve played.”
Also in match day two South Africa’s Chrestinah Kgatlana once again, put up a player of the match performance like she did against Nigeria; scoring two goals and assisting two others of Banyana Banyana’s seven against Equatorial Guinea. The Houston Dash forward who now has three goals and two player of the match awards to her name is in the running for the 2018 AWCON MVP and golden boot awards.
Kgatlana forms an integral part of a compact, well drilled and coached South African team who alongside Cameroon look like the real deal in this year’s AWCON tournament.
Asides having the brilliance and experience of players like Kgatlana and captain Janine Van Wyk, South Africa have shown to be very devastating on the counter and clinical in front of goal. Scoring the major chance they had against Nigeria and putting seven past the Equatorial Guineans.
With six points in two games, South Africa and Cameroon look good for the semi-final but nothing is certain yet as at least two other teams remain in the running for qualification in both groups.
FULL MATCHDAY TWO RESULT:
Group A
Cameroon 3-0 Algeria
Ghana 1-2 Mali
Group B
Nigeria 4-0 Zambia
Equatorial Guinea 1-7 South Africa
MATCHDAY THREE FIXTURES:
Group A
Cameroon vs Ghana
Algeria vs Mali
Group B
Equatorial Guinea vs Nigeria
South Africa vs Zambia
All games will be played simultaneously at 5:00pm Nigerian time on Friday and Saturday, with semi-final spots still up for grabs in both groups.
