Greetings sports lovers! I hope you're doing well.
So today, the 18th day of July 2025, kicks off the quarter-final matches in the ongoing WAFCON 2024 tournament in Morocco.
In my last post, I highlighted the qualified nations after the group stage matches, and today, four of them will be playing—meaning two matches are scheduled for today, and they are as follows:
Morocco🇲🇦 vs Mali🇲🇱
Nigeria🇳🇬 vs Zambia🇿🇲
Among these two matches, it's only the Nigeria vs Zambia match that has been the hot topic in the African football world.
You need to see how Zambians have taken over social media, hyping the game and making jest of the Nigerian team because they believe—or let me say, have already concluded—that Zambia will win.
Wait, in case you're not getting it... Do you remember the kind of tempo, hype, and noise PSG fans made against Chelsea in the just concluded FIFA Club World Cup before the match? Yes! That's exactly what is going on now. And it’s actually real because, from the look of things, the Nigerian team is being seen as the underdogs here. Why? Because we (Nigerians/Super Falcons) were beaten by this same Zambia in our last meeting during WAFCON 2022—three years ago.
Another thing giving them the edge to make all that noise is the fact that Nigeria hasn’t really been in good form during the matches played so far. We've been finding it very hard to score goals, and that has been a major concern for us.
Well, I still trust so much in the capacity of the Nigerian team, and I hope they’ll help us silence all the noise from the Zambians—just the way Chelsea silenced all the hype from PSG fans.
The match is kicking off at 5 PM (local time).
Morocco vs Mali is another game where the Malians are considered underdogs against the host nation. But what if they knock out Morocco? Mehn! Tonight is full of awaiting wonders.
Let’s see how things turn out.
Thanks for reading.
Photos: Caf Women