2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations
The 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations, officially known as the Total Women's Africa Cup Of Nations, Ghana 2018, was the 11th edition of the Africa Women Cup of Nations, the biennial international football championship organised by the Confederation of African Football for the women's national teams of Africa. The tournament was held in Ghana, from 17 November to [|1] December 2018.
The tournament also doubles as the African qualifiers to the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. The top three teams qualified for the World Cup in France.
Nigeria were the defending champions. They won the tournament for their third consecutive and 11th overall Africa Women Cup of Nations title.
Sponsorship
In July 2016, Total has secured an eight-year sponsorship package from the Confederation of African Football to support 10 of its principal competitions. Due to this sponsorship, the 2018 Women's Africa Cup of Nations is named "2018 Total Women's Africa Cup of Nations".Host selection
There were no other associations bidding to host the event other than Ghana. Ghana was de facto awarded the hosting rights on 27 September 2016 and officially in mid December. It is the first time they hosted the women's event.Following media reports in mid-2018 that Ghana may be stripped of the hosting rights, this topic was discussed at the meeting of the Organising Committee for Women's Football on 12 September, and a final decision not to replace Ghana as host was taken by the CAF Executive Committee at its meeting on 27–28 September, though the Secretariat would continue to closely monitor preparations.
Mascot
The mascot for the 11th Edition of Total Women's African Cup of Nations is called Agrohemaa and it is represented by an eagle. The reason why the eagle is used for the tournament is because of its courage, strength, focus and immortality.Qualification
Ghana qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining seven spots were determined by the qualifying rounds played in April and June 2018.Equatorial Guinea were initially banned from the 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations, but were reinstated after the ban was lifted in July 2017 at an emergency CAF committee meeting, and were included in the qualifying draw. However, FIFA banned them from qualifying for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, meaning they could not qualify for the World Cup regardless of their performance in the Africa Women Cup of Nations.
Qualified teams
The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament. Initially, Kenya replaced Equatorial Guinea after they were disqualified by the CAF for fielding an ineligible player, but the decision was overturned on appeal, and Equatorial Guinea were reintegrated into the competition. Kenya appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but failed to overturn the decision.| Team | Appearance | Previous best performance | FIFA ranking at start of event |
| 12th | 47 | ||
| 5th | 80 | ||
| 13th | 49 | ||
| 5th | 54 | ||
| 7th | 89 | ||
| 13th | 38 | ||
| 12th | 50 | ||
| 3rd | 116 |
Venues
The tournament was held in Accra and Cape Coast.| Accra | Cape Coast | |
| Accra Sports Stadium | Cape Coast Sports Stadium | |
| Capacity: 40,000 | Capacity: 15,000 | |
Squads
Each squad can contain a maximum of 21 players.Match officials
A total of 16 referees and 16 assistant referees were appointed for the tournament.Draw
The draw for the final tournament was held on 21 October 2018, 19:00 GMT, at the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. The hosts Ghana were seeded in Group A and allocated to position A1, and the holders Nigeria were seeded in Group B and allocated to position B1. The remaining six teams were seeded based on their results in the last three editions of the Africa Women Cup of Nations, and drawn to any of the remaining three positions in each group.| Seeds | Pot 1 | Pot 2 |
Group stage
The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals.;Tiebreakers
Teams are ranked according to points, and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings :
- Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
- Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
- Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
- If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
- Goal difference in all group matches;
- Goals scored in all group matches;
- Drawing of lots.
Group A
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Group B
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Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary, except for the third place match where penalty shoot-out is used to decide the winner if necessary.Bracket
Semi-finals
Winners qualify for 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.----
Third place match
Winner qualifies for 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.Final
Goalscorers
Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:| Award | Winner |
| Best player | Thembi Kgatlana |
| Top scorer | Thembi Kgatlana |
| Fair Play award |
| Goalkeeper | Defenders | Midfielders | Forwards | Substitutes |
| Tochukwu Oluehi | Lebogang Ramalepe Janine van Wyk Onome Ebi Claudine Meffometou | Raissa Feudjio Marlyse Ngo Ndoumbouk Elizabeth Addo | Gabrielle Onguéné Thembi Kgatlana Bassira Touré | Kaylin Swart Asisat Oshoala Linda Motlhalo Genevieve Ngo Mbeleck Francisca Ordega Fatoumata Diarra |
Qualified teams for FIFA Women's World Cup
The following three teams from CAF qualify for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA Women's World Cup1 |
| 7 | ||
| 0 | ||
| 30 11 2018 | 1 |