Nigeria’s grip on African women’s football took an unexpected hit in Rabat on Tuesday, as tournament debutants Malawi delivered one of WAFCON’s great upsets, defeating the 10-time champions 3-2 at Al Madina Stadium and throwing the Super Falcons’ pursuit of an 11th title and a World Cup ticket into sudden doubt.
The result broke new ground on multiple fronts. It marked the first time in WAFCON history, dating back to 1998, that Nigeria has lost to a team making its tournament debut, and it turned the Chawinga sisters into overnight legends of Malawian football. Temwa Chawinga scored twice, either side of a goal from her sister Tabita, as the Scorchers surged to a 3-1 lead deep into stoppage time before Nigeria’s late fightback, sparked by a Rasheedat Ajibade penalty and an Uchenna Kanu goal, fell just short.
Warning signs had been there before kickoff, even if they went largely unheeded. Veteran football analyst Onochie Anibeze had flagged Malawi’s threat in a message sent just after kickoff, only for the caution to be waved off given Nigeria’s overwhelming favourite status, arriving with ten stars on their jersey and a decade of continental dominance behind them. Malawi, though, never played like a team overwhelmed by the occasion. They stayed compact defensively, absorbed pressure, and leaned on the pace and composure of the Chawinga sisters, whose quality had been flagged as central to Malawi’s hopes long before the tournament began. As the match wore on scoreless, Nigeria’s frustration grew visible, and Malawi’s belief grew with it, until the sisters’ second-half burst turned the contest on its head entirely.
For a Super Falcons side ranked worlds apart from their 153rd-ranked opponents, the defeat lands as a genuine wake-up call heading into a group that also features Zambia, fresh off a 6-0 demolition of Egypt fueled by four goals from Barbra Banda.
Head coach Justine Madugu, visibly stunned by the result, called for quick composure rather than panic. “That’s football for you. It happens. I’m happy it happened at the Group stage where we still have two games to bounce back. For sure, we shall bounce back to pick a World Cup ticket and possibly extend our title with the eleventh trophy. I salute the Malawians for their bravery. They deserve their victory,” he said.
Captain Asisat Oshoala echoed that message of resilience, urging her teammates to treat the defeat as a lesson rather than a verdict. “It hurts, but it’s not the end of the road. We’ve to look inward, find out what happened, correct it and get back to winning ways. There’s light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
History offers Nigeria some comfort here. Spain lost their 2010 World Cup opener to Switzerland before going on to lift the trophy, Argentina suffered a shock defeat to Saudi Arabia at the 2022 World Cup en route to becoming champions, and Portugal won Euro 2016 without winning a single group-stage match. Midfielder Esther Okoronkwo, whose two goals and six assists powered Nigeria’s title run last year, pointed to a similarly instructive case closer to home: Côte d’Ivoire’s disastrous group stage at AFCON 2023, which cost their coach his job before the team recovered to beat Nigeria in the final on home soil. “We’ve to reinvent our mentality in our next two games. Let’s not dwell on the defeat and mourn without hope,” she said.
Even amid the setback, Nigeria’s roster still carries the tournament’s most decorated individual legacies. Francisca Ordega and Osinachi Ohale, now playing club football in Saudi Arabia and Mexico respectively, each hold the record for most WAFCON titles won, with five apiece, positioning them for a potential sixth if Nigeria can right the ship against Zambia and Egypt.
That recovery would extend a dominance no other nation has come close to matching. Nigeria has won 10 WAFCON titles, spanning 1998 through 2024, and has never lost a single final it has reached, a perfect 10-for-10 record broken only by Equatorial Guinea’s surprise wins in 2008 and 2012 and South Africa’s first title in 2022. The road back to an eleventh star now runs directly through the two matches ahead.
