The 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations is nearing the end of the group stage, with only Group D left to complete its final round of matches today. Six teams have already secured qualification from Groups A to C, but it was Group C that produced the tournament’s biggest talking point.
The Super Falcons thrashed Egypt 6-2 in a controversial encounter, as earlier reported by The Intercept Nigeria, while Zambia edged Malawi 2-1 in the other group fixture.
Ordinarily, most football fans are used to tiebreakers being decided first by points and then by overall goal difference, as seen in competitions like the Premier League, UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup.
CAF, however, operates differently.
When teams finish level on points, CAF first looks at the results among the tied teams before considering the overall goal difference. In this case, the deciding factor was goals scored in the matches involving only Nigeria, Malawi and Zambia.
Breaking down the Group C mini-league:
Malawi: 4 goals (3 vs Nigeria, 1 vs Zambia)
Nigeria: 3 goals (2 vs Malawi, 1 vs Zambia)
Zambia: 2 goals (2 vs Malawi, 0 vs Nigeria)
That meant Malawi topped the mini-league with four goals, Nigeria finished second with three, while Zambia came third with just two.
Zambia’s biggest undoing was that most of their goals came against Egypt, a team that was not part of the three-way tie. As a result, the six goals they scored against Egypt counted towards their overall goal difference but had no impact on the mini-league that CAF used to separate the tied teams.
In the end, despite boasting the best overall goal difference, Zambia paid the price for not doing enough against the other two tied teams, allowing Malawi and Nigeria to progress to the quarter-finals.
