Women’s AFCON qualifiers: Lionesses face Algeria in tough final round clash today.

Cameroon will face the North Africans with focus on bagging a victory or at least a draw as the selection seeks to bolster its chances of qualifying heading to the ultimate return leg fixture in Douala next Tuesday October 28.

The team under the leadership of head coach, Jean Baptiste Bisseck, arrived Algeria earlier this week for final preparations in the buildup to the clash with the female Desert Foxes.

The final touches in Oran followed the multiple-month load of work that the team had been putting in over the last more than three months engaging in training camps and staging friendly matches to brace for the fixture.

The outfit faced African champions, the Super Falcons of Nigeria and reigning vice African champions, the Atlas Lionesses of Morocco in test matches to further boost their readiness.

Algeria potential dark horse against Cameroon 

On paper, Algeria is an outright underdog to Cameroon in women’s football, the Indomitable Lionesses having reached the finals of the Women’s AFCON four times, and participated in two editions of the FIFA Women’s World Cup and an Olympic Games tournament.

But the form that the Algerian selection has demonstrated over the last few months and the uninspiring performances that Cameroon has had in the last three years leave the North Africans heading to this Thursday’s game as a possible danger to the Indomitable Lionesses.

The Algeria team which has never participated in a global competition, made it to the quarterfinals of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in July this year. 

The team penned down the history after it reached the last eight of the 2024 edition of the continental showpiece where it was knocked out by subsequent tournament bronze medalists, the Black Queens of Ghana following a 4-2 loss on post-match penalties.

The run to the quarterfinals in Morocco came after the female Desert Foxes had completed their journey in the group stages of the tournament without losing a single game. 

The team successfully challenged Tunisia, Botswana and subsequent tournament winners and record 10-time title holders, the Super Falcons of Nigeria to sail through to the second round without conceding.

Unlike Algeria, the Indomitable Lionesses are currently going through one of their darkest moments. 

The team is currently battling to return to the final phase of a major tournament for the first time in three years after it missed out on the most recent editions of the Women’s AFCON, the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Olympic Games.

The team which reached the second round of the FIFA Women’s World in its debut in Canada in 2015 and returned to register a similar performance in the 2019 series in France, failed to make the 2023 edition of the competition following its shambolic showing in the 2022 Women’s AFCON and failing to qualify through the playoffs. 

Captain Aboudi Onguene and the Lionesses side also failed to qualify for the 2024 Women’s AFCON tournament, marking the first time that the team was missing out on the final phase of the continental showpiece since it was introduced three decades ago.

The team went on to compound the tournament football drought when it failed to make the 2024 Olympic Games after losing to Nigeria in February last year in the first round of the African zonal qualifiers for the women’s football tournament of the Paris Games.

The first-round elimination in the 2024 Olympic Games qualifying race means the Lionesses’ game with the Super Falcons on February 24 last year remains the last competitive match that the team has played leading to this Thursday’s game against Algeria.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3603 of Thursday October 23, 2025