The FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup has been full of surprises and upsets. It has also seen African countries make headlines with popular wins. In the second fixtures of the group stage matches, 40th-ranked Nigeria came from behind to beat 10th-ranked Australia in a 5-goal thriller in Melbourne.
The final fixtures of the group stage games of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup saw more surprises as New Zealand, Canada, Brazil, Italy, and Germany crashed out of the competition.
Brazil could not find a way through Jamaica’s defense and the latter ended up going through. South Africa came from behind to beat Italy in another 3-2 thriller to secure a spot in the round of 16, after losing against Sweden and drawing Argentina.
The biggest upset was Germany, which is ranked no. 2 in the world, only behind the USA crashed out of the competition for the first time in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. During the first fixtures of the group stage, Germany thrashed Morocco who are debutants of the competition 6-0.
In the second round, they got their first defeat of the competition, losing 2-1 to Colombia. In the final fixture, a win would have gotten them through, but they failed to find the back of the net against South Korea. Meanwhile, Morocco beat Columbia to secure their spot in the next round of the competition.
As it stands, Africa still has three countries representing in the competition, Nigeria, South Africa, and Morocco. Nigeria would be facing England in the round of 16, South Africa would face the Netherlands, and Morocco would be facing France.
