WAFCON 2024: Ghana’s Black Queens miss out on final after penalty loss to Morocco

Evelyn Badu and Comfort Yeboah spurned their spot kicks as Ghana suffered a 4-2 defeat to Morocco to miss out on a place in the finals of the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

Regulation time plus extra 30 minutes ended in stalemate after Sakina Ouzraoui scored 10 minutes inside the second half to cancel out Stella Nyamekye’s 26th minute opener.

Kim Lars Bjorkegren maintained the starting lineup that defeated Algeria on penalties to secure a semifinal berth.

Despite the hostile atmosphere, the Black Queens had a great start to the game not giving too much away in terms of possession.

Ghana also created a few chances of their own with Stella Nyamekye and Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah forcing decent saves out of Morocco goalkeeper, Khadija Er-Rmichi.

However, she couldn’t keep out the rebound effort from Stella Nyamekye after she made a good save off Josephine Bonsu’s header, giving the Black Queens the lead in the game.

Doris Boaduwaa and Princess Marfo had chances to add more goals for Ghana before the break but fluffed their lines at the final moment.

Susan Ama Duah came up clutch in defence to make a last-ditch clearance, preventing a Moroccan goal.

The two teams went into the break with Stella’s goal being the difference maker.

Could have been a great start to the second half after the Atlas Lionesses goalkeeper made a mess but Stella couldn’t score from a cheeky loop.

Cynthia Konlan was forced into her first save of the game when she tipped Najat Badri’s curler over the crossbar.

Just when the game seemed to be taking off again, the Black Queens conceded after Sakina Ouzraoui’s beat Cynthia to the ball to make it 1-1.

Despite the Moroccan pressure after the equaliser, the Ghanaian team was up to task forcing the game into extra time for the second consecutive game.

It was a cagey affair as both sides failed to get the much needed goal as the match ended in penalties.

Hosts Morocco netted all their spot kicks as Evelyn and Comfort missed theirs and as a result, Ghana was unable to make it to the final for the first time since 2006.

Up next for the Black Queens is a third place playoff clash with defending champions South Africa on July 25 while the final between Nigeria and Morocco comes off a day after.

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