Lyon contingent thrive as Chawinga, Benstiti, Bekhaled and Lipoff reach Women’s AFCON semi-finals | OneFootball

Lyon will be strongly represented in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals in Morocco, with Tabitha Chawinga, Sofia Bekhaled, Farid Benstiti and Dimitri Lipoff all through. Each of their teams has already secured Women’s World Cup qualification, the primary objective.

According to Le Progres, on Sunday Malawi, led by Chawinga, beat Ghana 2-1 to reach the last four and, for the first time, book a place at the 2027 finals in Brazil, scheduled from 24 June to 27 July.

Temwa Chawinga is second in the scoring charts with four goals and two assists. Malawi face Algeria in Rabat on Wednesday.

Algeria advanced by defeating Côte d’Ivoire, coached by former OL boss Reynald Pedros from 2017 to 2019, and sealed a first ever World Cup qualification. Bekhaled has returned to OL Lyonnes after a loan at Servette Geneva.

Lyon-born Benstiti is joined in the last four by Dimitri Lipoff, his former assistant at OL, in Russia, at PSG and later in China. Called in by Cameroon only weeks before kick-off and hired as coordinator of the Indomitable Lionesses, the former Al Ahly coach has steered a reinstated, unfancied side into the semi-finals.

After edging holders Nigeria 1-0, Cameroon now meet hosts Morocco on Wednesday at 22:00. The Moroccan side look difficult to beat at home. Marie Ngah, thriving at Galatasaray, and her team expended plenty of energy in their quarter-final to realise their World Cup dream.

Source: Le Progres

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”