The 2024 ladies’s Africa Cup of Nations enters the final eight knockout phases on Friday as nine-time champions Nigeria face Zambia in Casablanca and hosts Morocco entertain Mali on the Stade Olympique in Rabat.
On Saturday in Berkane, Algeria play Ghana and defending champions South Africa tackle Senegal in Oujda.
“It is the knockout phases and a matter of attempting to remain composed,” South Africa defender Lebohang Ramalepe informed Cafonline after the 4-0 win over Mali within the remaining sport in Group C on 12 July.
Ramalepe was deemed participant of the match after marshalling the defence and organising two of the objectives on the Honneur Stadium in Oujda.
“We have now to play our regular sport in opposition to Senegal,” added the 33-year-old. “And we’ve to verify we convert our probabilities. Then we will probably be heading to the semi-finals.”
Nigeria’s interim boss Justine Madugu highlighted his aspect’s lack of precision following the 0-0 draw in opposition to Algeria within the remaining sport of Group B.
“Earlier than the match, the strikers have been enjoying video games and scoring lots of objectives,” stated Madugu.
“However throughout this competitors, goal-scoring has grow to be a problem for us. We do not have a lot time to work on that however it’s an space that’s turning into a reason behind concern and fear for us.
“On saying that, the gamers have executed nicely to get us into the final eight and so they have executed nicely. I’ve been impressed with them.”
Madugu, 61, took over as head coach following the departure of Randy Waldrum final September.
He will probably be trying to take the Tremendous Falcons – as they’re nicknamed – to a tenth title because the inception of the competitors in its current format in 1998.
“From when the schedules come out, it’s important to anticipate who you would possibly come up in opposition to and attainable plans,” Madugu added.
“We have now watched a few of Zambia’s video games and we are going to take a look at their strengths and weaknesses simply as they’re going to be taking a look at our good and unhealthy factors.”
Raucous house help
The match was scheduled to happen in July 2024 however was delayed to keep away from a conflict with the 2024 Olympic Video games in Paris.
The postponement has allowed organisers to spruce up venues which will probably be used throughout the males’s Cup of Nations in December and January 2026.
In that competitors, Morocco’s males will try to enhance on a disappointing run to the last-16 on the 2023 Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.
Their feminine counterparts will probably be searching for extra excellence.
Three years in the past, at a packed Complicated Sportif Prince Moulay Abdallah in Rabat, Morocco beat Botswana to achieve the semi-finals on the ladies’s Africa Cup of Nations for the primary time.
With that occasion getting used because the qualifying competitors for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Morocco superior to that match for the primary time the place they progressed by way of the group phases earlier than dropping to France within the last-16.
Morocco skipper GHIZLANE CHEBAK will go into Friday night time’s sport hoping to proceed her quest for the “Golden Boot” because the match’s finest scorer.
In addition to notching up 4 objectives within the group stage video games in opposition to Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Senegal, she was additionally among the many gamers named within the “group of the group phases”
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Analysts from the Confederation of African Soccer, which organises the biennial match, hailed the 34-year-old for her imaginative and prescient, passing accuracy, and talent to regulate the tempo of play.
Chebbak, together with with World Cup-winning head coach Jorge Vilda, will probably be anticipated to steer Morocco to glory three years after dropping to South Africa in the 2022 remaining.
“What we’re feeling is greater than stress,” stated Vilda who took Spain to success on the 2023 ladies’s World Cup.
“It is above all an important want to do nicely,” the 43-year-old Spaniard added.
“We put a specific amount of stress on ourselves every day to work nicely. However it’s not a destructive stress. It is a privilege to have that stress, as a result of it means we’ve a very good group, and we all know we are able to obtain nice issues. That is what we’re preventing for.”
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