Hosts Morocco Defeats Botswana Comfortably in 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations Quarterfinal

• Morocco will join Zambia at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup to be hosted in Australia and New Zealand
• The hosts of the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations comfortable saw off the challenge of Botswana in the second quarterfinal
• They will now have taken on Zambia in one semifinal of the tournament for a spot in the final and a chance for an inaugural championship win

Hosts Morocco have advanced to the semifinals of the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations.

Despite a tight-looking 2-1 victory over a game Botswana, their quarterfinal win was a relatively comfortable one.

They will now take on African women's football's rising giants Zambia in the first semifinal next Monday. The other semifinal fixture will be decided after Cameroon and Nigeria, and South Africa and Tunisia collide later tonight in the remaining quarterfinals.

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Morocco opened the scoring from a free-kick that was deftly turned in by Sanaa Mssoudy in the third minute. The near 50 000 spectators inside the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat were almost instantly silence when Keitumetse Dithebe equalised for Botswana in the seventh minute from an unnecessary free-kick given away by the hosts.

Thereafter, the home team throttled their opponents out of the game entirely. This dominance was rewarded when Yasmin Mrabet fired them into a 2-1 after heading in a corner. Neutral observers would agree that the lead really should have been far greater at that point.

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South Africa's hopes of an inaugural Africa Women's Cup of Nations have been affected by another unfortunate turn of events.

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Football

As reported by Sports Brief, two unidentified individuals have tested positive for Covid-19 while out in Morocco for the 2022 edition of the tournament. Banyana Banyana is preparing to face Tunisia in the quarterfinal set for Thursday, 14 July.

The Banyana camp was still reeling from bad news just days before that could have a big impact on how the rest of the tournament plays out.