{"id":370817,"date":"2026-08-09T20:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T20:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/370817\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T20:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T20:28:11","slug":"cameroon-defeats-defending-wafcon-champ-nigeria-for-world-cup-qualification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/370817\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameroon defeats defending WAFCON champ Nigeria for World Cup qualification"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CASABLANCA, Morocco (AP) \u2014 Goalkeeper Michaely Bihina starred and Cameroon held on to beat defending champion Nigeria 1-0 on Sunday for a place in the semifinals of the Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup qualification.<\/p>\n<p>Cameroon\u2019s 19-year-old defender Myriam Nyadjou fired the Indomitable Lionesses through to the semifinals, where they will face <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/morocco-south-africa-score-wafcon-womens-world-cup-70432c34da29a7f525b86d673f2645d4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">host nation Morocco<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>All four semifinalists qualify for the 2027 Women\u2019s World Cup in Brazil, while Nigeria and the other losing quarterfinal teams play on Thursday for a spot in an intercontinental playoff.<\/p>\n<p>It will be Cameroon\u2019s 11th WAFCON semifinal, and ensured its third World Cup participation after previous appearances in 2015 and 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Nyadjou scored in the 19th minute with a thunderous free kick straight into the top left corner. It was the only part of the goal left unguarded by the Nigerian defenders\u2019 wall.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria had dominated possession and created more chances, keeping Bihina busy.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria was dealt another blow toward the end of the first half when star forward Rinsola Babajide had to go off injured.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria kept pushing after the break, however, and Bihina kept showcasing her skills to thwart the Super Falcons. She produced a fine one-handed save to stop a header from Uchenna Kanu, and others<\/p>\n<p>Esther Okoronkwo missed the best chance to equalize in stoppage time after a defensive error.<\/p>\n<p>Tournament debutant Malawi faces Ghana in the last quarterfinal in Rabat later Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP soccer: <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CASABLANCA, Morocco (AP) \u2014 Goalkeeper Michaely Bihina starred and Cameroon held on to beat defending champion Nigeria 1-0&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[45],"tags":[143,166405,79,16609,165,177376,122,724,323,264],"class_list":["post-370817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nigeria","tag-cameroon","tag-esther-okoronkwo","tag-ghana","tag-malawi","tag-morocco","tag-myriam-nyadjou","tag-nigeria","tag-rabat","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117067441910382036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}