AFCON Women 2026: Cameroon won 3–0 against Malawi in the final in Rabat. Full WAFCON results, table, top scorers, Nigeria exit and World Cup qualifiers. Updated guide.
2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON / AFCON women)
Champions: Cameroon (1st title)
Final score: Cameroon 3–0 Malawi
Date: 16 August 2026
Venue: Moulay El Hassan Stadium, Rabat, Morocco
| Position | Team | Notes |
| Champions | Cameroon | First-ever title |
| Runners-up | Malawi | Tournament debutants |
| Third place | Algeria | First medal |
| Fourth | Morocco | Hosts |
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Key facts
- Host: Morocco (third consecutive edition)
- Dates: 26 July – 16 August 2026
- Teams: 16 (first expanded finals)
- Top scorers: Marie Ngah Manga (Cameroon), Temwa Chawinga (Malawi), Barbra Banda (Zambia) — 5 goals each
- Best player: Monique Ngock
- Best goalkeeper: Michaely Bihina
- 2027 World Cup automatic qualifiers: Cameroon, Malawi, Algeria, Morocco
Cameroon became only the fourth nation to win the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, joining Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and South Africa. Malawi reached the final on their debut as the lowest-ranked side at the finals.
Algeria took bronze by beating hosts Morocco on penalties. Defending-era power Nigeria exited in the quarter-finals and missed automatic World Cup qualification for the first time in their history.
This block is the core answer for afcon women, afcon women 2026, afcon women final, who won afcon women 2025 (year-label mix-ups), afcon women results and Afcon Women 2026 table.
Final match: Cameroon 3–0 Malawi
Marie Ngah Manga scored in the 20th minute and again in 45’+3. Naomi Eto scored in the 29th minute. All three goals came before half-time at Moulay El Hassan Stadium. Malawi’s Chawinga sisters were kept quiet after a tournament in which Temwa Chawinga had shared the scoring lead.
Cameroon had lost three previous finals, all to Nigeria (2004, 2014, 2016). The 2026 final ended that wait. Malawi still left Morocco with a first World Cup ticket and a story that will define their programme for years.
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AFCON women table; final positions context
The WAFCON table / afcon women table after the knockout stage is not a single group grid. The meaningful end ranking is the medal table above. Group-stage tables decided who reached the last eight; from the quarter-finals onward, results were knockout only.
Semi-finals (summary)
- Cameroon beat Morocco on penalties after a 0–0 draw
- Malawi beat Algeria 3–1
Third-place play-off
- Algeria beat Morocco on penalties after 1–1
Final
- Cameroon 3–0 Malawi
Those four sides, Cameroon, Malawi, Algeria, Morocco, took the automatic African places for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
How Nigeria and the favourites exited
Nigeria vs Morocco women and broader Nigeria national football team vs Morocco national football team match searches often sit beside AFCON Women because both are continental heavyweights. In 2026, their paths split early in the knockouts.
Cameroon eliminated Nigeria 1–0 in the quarter-finals in Casablanca. It was a historic low for the Super Falcons at WAFCON: first failure to reach the semi-finals, and with it the first failure to book a direct World Cup place through this competition. Morocco, as hosts, reached the last four before losing to Cameroon on penalties and then dropping the bronze match to Algeria.
South Africa, another traditional contender, went out to Morocco in the quarter-finals. Ghana fell to Malawi. The bracket rewarded organisation and finishing more than reputation.
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AFCON women fixtures and the 2026 calendar
Afcon women fixtures / AFCON Women 2026 fixtures ran from 26 July to 16 August 2026 across venues in Rabat and Casablanca.
Format
- 16 teams in four groups of four
- Top two in each group → quarter-finals
- Straight knockout to the final
Knockout dates (headline)
- Quarter-finals: 8–9 August 2026
- Semi-finals: 12 August 2026
- Third place: 15 August 2026
- Final: 16 August 2026
Afcon women live coverage on those dates carried group deciders, then the Cameroon–Nigeria quarter-final, Malawi’s run, and the Rabat final. After 16 August, AFCON Women results became a closed archive for this edition.
Groups and early tournament story
AFCON Women 2026 groups mixed established sides with debutants. Malawi’s Group C path was the shock of the opening phase: they took points off stronger names, advanced, then beat Ghana in the last eight and Algeria in the semi-final.
Cameroon came through their side of the draw with a disciplined knockout style, including the 1–0 win over Nigeria and the penalty shoot-out against Morocco.
Expansion to 16 teams changed the texture of the finals. More nations meant more first-time stories and a wider gap between the very best and the developing programmes; exactly the gap Cameroon exploited in the final against a brave but outgunned Malawi.
Top scorers and awards
Three players finished on five goals:
| Player | Team | Goals |
| Marie Ngah Manga | Cameroon | 5 |
| Temwa Chawinga | Malawi | 5 |
| Barbra Banda | Zambia | 5 |
Tie-break detail in official tallies used assists to order the golden-boot race; all three names remain the headline scorers for AFCON Women 2026. Monique Ngock took best player. Michaely Bihina took best goalkeeper after a knockout run that included the Nigeria shutout and the Morocco semi-final. Algeria received the fair-play award.
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World Cup road and what the final four gained
Automatic qualification for Brazil 2027 is the second prize of every modern African Women Cup of Nations. Cameroon return to the World Cup stage. Malawi and Algeria go for the first time. Morocco add another appearance after their recent World Cup experience.
Teams that exited before the semi-finals, including Nigeria, must look at inter-confederation play-off routes or the next cycle. That single structural fact explains why quarter-final week carried as much tension as the final itself.
Historical winners list (context for “who won”)
Women’s Africa Cup of Nations winners list (major titles) is still short:
- Nigeria — dominant historical record across many editions
- Equatorial Guinea
- South Africa
- Cameroon — first title in 2026
Searches for who won AFCON Women 2025 often mix calendar years with the 2024 or 2026 editions. The completed tournament covered in this article is WAFCON 2026 (26 July–16 August 2026), won by Cameroon.
Older pages labelled afcon women 2025 or afcon women 2025 final should be checked for the actual match year before they are treated as the same event.
2022 fixtures and older archives
WAFCON 2022 fixtures and Women’s African Cup of Nations 2022 fixtures belong to a previous cycle (hosted in Morocco, with South Africa among the central stories of that era). They are useful history, not the 2026 results grid.
Likewise, morocco niger as a search string is not a 2026 WAFCON match headline; Niger’s women’s programme and Morocco’s host campaign are separate topics from the Cameroon–Malawi final.
AFCON Women 2026 vs men’s AFCON
AFCON women (WAFCON) is the CAF women’s national-team championship. It is not the men’s Africa Cup of Nations. Schedules, qualifiers and World Cup links differ. When users type afcon women, they almost always want the women’s finals, the champions, the table of the last four, and the World Cup places; not the men’s tournament.
Why this tournament shifted the continental order
Three narratives define AFCON Women 2026:
- Cameroon’s first title after three final losses to Nigeria.
- Malawi’s debut final and World Cup qualification from a low ranking.
- Nigeria’s early exit and the end of their automatic World Cup streak through this event.
Add Algeria’s first medal and Morocco’s fourth-place finish as hosts, and the medal table looks unlike the Nigeria-centred decades that shaped the competition’s reputation. Expansion to 16 teams made that shake-up more likely; Cameroon’s clinical final made it permanent in the record books.
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Practical guide for results and “fixtures today” searches
- AFCON Women results: final is Cameroon 3–0 Malawi (16 Aug 2026).
- AFCON women fixtures: tournament finished; next interest is friendlies, qualifiers or the following edition’s draw.
- AFCON Women’s qualifiers fixtures today: only relevant in a future qualifying window, not for the closed 2026 finals.
- AFCON women live: applies on matchdays; outside those dates, use the champions block and medal table.
Key takeaways
- AFCON women 2026 champions: Cameroon.
- Final: Cameroon 3–0 Malawi, 16 August 2026, Rabat.
- Medal table: Cameroon, Malawi, Algeria, Morocco.
- Top scorers: Ngah Manga, Temwa Chawinga, Barbra Banda (5 each).
- Best player: Monique Ngock.
- World Cup 2027 (automatic): Cameroon, Malawi, Algeria, Morocco.
- Nigeria out in the quarter-finals (1–0 to Cameroon).
- Cameroon are the fourth different winners in WAFCON history.
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FAQ
When were the 2022 Women’s AFCON fixtures played?
The 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations was a previous edition of the tournament (hosted in Morocco in that cycle). It is separate from the 2026 finals won by Cameroon.
What does WAFCON stand for?
WAFCON stands for Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, the same competition often searched as AFCON women or African Women Cup of Nations.
How many teams played at Women’s AFCON before the 2026 expansion?
Recent finals before 2026 were staged with a smaller field (commonly 12 teams). 2026 was the first edition expanded to 16 teams.
Is AFCON women the same tournament as the men’s Africa Cup of Nations?
No. AFCON Women / WAFCON is the CAF championship for women’s national teams. The men’s Africa Cup of Nations is a separate competition with its own qualifiers, hosts and schedule.
