WAFCON 2024-25 - Morocco v Ghana - Semi Final

TUESDAY 22 JULY 2025 - STADE OLYMPIQUE DE RABAT - Through every match that I have had the honour of attending in this tournament, the cultural ceremony of CAF has become better and better. This Semi-Final did not buck that brilliant trend.

Behind this stadium, the construction of the new Omnisports Stadium in Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex is well underway for the FIFA World Cup in 2030.

Around the ground, Ghana looked great in colour and volume but were strongly outnumbered circa 500:1 in this 25,000-capacity Olympic Stadium.

Nevertheless, the Black Queens of Ghana looked formidable from kick off. It was like watching the Super Falcons prey upon the Copper Queens of Zambia in the Quarter Final. After winning their Semi Final against WAFCON22 holders South Africa tonight, the Super Falcons are already nested in the final of WAFCON24-25 and await the winners of this match.

True to form here in Rabat, in this game the Ghanaians took the lead against WAFCON24-25 hosts Morocco early on through Stella.

With this lead, the Black Queens were even more comfortable in defence and seemed to be strolling towards the final contest for the throne.

Even with their pride filling this fine Olympic Stadium, the Moroccan Lionesses could not break through the backline of the Black Queens. The sharp bite and speed of Sakina Ouzraoui looked like their best chance of catching Ghana before the final whistle.

Through the halftime teamtalk, the fighting spirit of the Moroccan Lionesses seemed to have returned with a vengeance.

On the 52nd minute, a long strike forced the Ghanaian goalie to pull off a strong save with one hand tipping it over the bar. From the corner however, Morocco failed to create a chance and capitalise on their early impetus in the second half.

However moments later sharp Sakina Ouzraoui fulfilled the potential she showed me in the first half. Then, once through the Ghanaian defence, drilled it low and hard into the net!

Pegging level lifted the team and the crowd as a marvellous Mexican wave whooshed across the Atlantic to Morocco and circled the capacity crowd umpteen times.

Ghana tried to reimpose their physical strength and on 77 minutes it looked like this overspilled into a head injury as in a tussle for the ball it looked like an arm hit the head of Moroccan Sanaâ Mssoudy. Had the referee checked VAR, that could have resulted in a penalty.

It's noteworthy that between 71 to 77 minutes, the match was delayed repeatedly due to injuries to 5 different players. While the stakes were heightening after the Moroccans had pegged level, we were surprised that there were no yellow cards given to match the shirts of the Ghana until the 82nd minute when Sanaâ Mssoudy was injured in another challenge and this time even had to be substituted for Fatima Tagnaout.

In future it could be worthwhile for WAFCON to consider whether official management of games should be strengthened to protect players and the quality of football, especially between sides with such a gulf in physicality.

Similar ill-discipline continued through extra time and into penalties when the Ghanaian goalkeeper interfered with the ball and stood in front of the Moroccan player taking each of their first two penalties. It was not until the third penalty that the referee told the Ghanaian goalie to stop, twice.

As a fan and former coach of the women's football team at university who has long loved the culture of football played by women, I would be deeply disappointed if such disrespect for the rules and spirit of the game, as well as the referee, becomes normal in football played by women. As Chair of Audit & Risk in an English football association with 25,000 footballers which are renowned for respect and fair play, I can confirm that such behaviour can be governed out of the game to keep it beautiful.

Coming back to the match at hand, if the Ghanaian goalkeeper was more focused on the football than the psychological gameplay, the Moroccans might not have found the back of the net with every penalty from the shootout.

Gloves off to shake the hands of the Moroccan keeper, who showed her dignity throughout the proceedings. conceded only two penalties and so set up a mouth-watering final for the hosts against nine-time champions of WAFCON Nigeria.

The save that ended Ghana's run

The respectful and professional behaviour of the Moroccan goalkeeper was rewarded with a match-winning save of a penalty in this video.

We hope that the injury to Sanaâ Mssoudy is not serious enough to prevent full fitness for the final in Rabat on Saturday.

Like all of the matches played by the Moroccan Lionesses in this tournament, this one will be in the Stade Olympique de Rabat. The familiar turf and audience might give them the strength to handle the power of the Nigerian women.

At the match I was scouting a right winger for a European club and two of the four prospective players that I had identified in this game scored but my friend never said he wanted a goalscoring winger, so may be the Woman of the Match is not prospect...

Sakina Ouzraoui won Woman of the Match

Let's see on Saturday whether Morocco can go one better than being mere finalists in 2022. Since then the country has been awarded the 2030 FIFA World Cup and with that momentum for women's football is also growing greatly here.

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