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Cup of Nations final: Can Cameroon beat Nigeria to end long wait for title?
- Updated: December 2, 2016
Asisat Oshoala has scored six goals in four games for Nigeria
Nigeria have had an almost vice-like grip on the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations but will face determined hosts Cameroon in Saturday’s final.
BBC Sport takes a closer look at the biennial tournament and tackles some key questions for the game in Africa.
What is the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations?
The top tournament for international women’s football in Africa, it was first held in 1991, when teams competed for the trophy over several months. It was the same format in 1995.
Since 1998, however, it has been held as a tournament every two years, with eight teams taking part. Cameroon is hosting this one, the 10th edition.
Teams are divided into two groups of four, with the top two sides advancing straight to the semi-finals.
Cameroon, who have never won the competition, qualified as hosts and were joined by Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Egypt, debutants Kenya and Mali, who replaced Equatorial Guinea after they were disqualified for fielding a player using fraudulent documents.
Nigeria are the continent’s dominant force. Only one other nation, Equatorial Guinea, has won this tournament, coming out on top in both 2008 and 2012.
How has the 2016 event gone?
The tournament is being staged in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital city, and Limbe, in the west of the country.
The locals have embraced it, with tickets priced competitively between 1,000 and 5,000 Central African Francs (£1.30 to £6.45).
Cameroon will also host the men’s Africa Cup of Nations in 2019
Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaounde has sold out and will be cacophonous, thanks to the vuvuzelas, beating drums, screeching whistles, cheers of the crowd and the sound of seats shuffling from the many Mexican Waves.
Helen Mgoh, a local journalist working for National radio broadcaster CRTV, says Cameroonians have been “clamouring for some good football” because the men have been performing poorly for a long time.
“These women have been putting the action out there on the turf and we’re just loving it,” adds Ngoh.
It’s a sentiment echoed by Cameroon’s assistant coach and former captain Bernadette Anong, who says she has never experienced an atmosphere like it.
Even the stadium in Limbe has been …
