The road to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup hosted in Brazil was supposed to be a short path that ended in celebration for the Black Queens. Instead, it has become another painful chapter in Ghana’s long wait to return to the global stage.
Ghana’s hopes of securing a spot at the World Cup suffered a major setback after the Queens were eliminated from the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) following a 2-1 quarter-final defeat to Malawi on Sunday.
The loss means Ghana will not be among the four teams that qualify automatically for the World Cup by reaching the WAFCON semi-finals.
The Black Queens, however, still have a route to the tournament’s World Cup qualification play-offs, where the four quarter-final losers will compete for Africa’s remaining two spots.
Ghana will face Ivory Coast for one of the two remaining spots on Thursday, August 13, at 21:00 GMT at the Moulay Rachid Stadium in Casablanca.
But for a team that arrived in Morocco with genuine optimism, the defeat feels like another missed opportunity.
Before the tournament, expectations were high. Ghana had finished third at the previous edition and entered the competition believing that the experience could provide the foundation for a deeper run.
The Ghana Football Association had also publicly backed the team to qualify for the World Cup.
Head coach Kim Lars Björkegren had made the mission clear: qualify from the group, win the quarter-final to secure a World Cup ticket and then challenge for the WAFCON title.
The opening stages appeared to support that ambition as Ghana began with a convincing 2-0 victory over debutants Cape Verde, giving the Queens the perfect start.
Momentum was turned after they suffered their first setback with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Cameroon. However, the Queens secured qualification to the knockout stages with a 1-1 draw against Mali in their final group game.
In the Quarter-final against Malawi, Ghana had struck first through Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah, but Temwa Chawinga quickly restored parity before Rose Kadzere delivered the decisive blow in the dying minute of the second half, ending Ghana’s World Cup bid and the chance to lift the WAFCON trophy.
The result exposed a familiar problem: Ghana can compete with the continent’s best, but competing is no longer enough.
For years, the Black Queens have remained one of Africa’s respected women’s teams without converting that reputation into sustained success at the highest level.
Their return to the WAFCON podium in the previous edition offered hope that a new chapter was beginning. Instead, another early knockout exit has placed the spotlight firmly back on the team’s preparation, consistency and ability to handle decisive moments.
There is also a painful historical aspect to the elimination from the 2026 WAFCON.
The Black Queens have not appeared at the FIFA Women’s World Cup since 2007. The 2026 WAFCON was therefore more than a continental tournament; it represented Ghana’s clearest opportunity in years to end nearly two decades of absence from women’s football’s biggest stage.
That opportunity to end the long drought has not completely disappeared.
The quarter-final defeat leaves Ghana with one final lifeline — the World Cup play-offs. The stakes could hardly be higher. Win there, and the Queens can still keep their dream of travelling to Brazil 2027 alive. Lose, and another World Cup cycle will pass Ghana by.
For now, Ivory Coast stands in Ghana’s way on the road back to the World Cup.
The Black Queens have shown that they possess talent, experience and the ability to challenge strong opposition. What remains is turning those qualities into results when the margin for error is smallest.
The World Cup dream is wounded, as the path has become longer than Ghana expected, but not yet dead.
On Thursday night in Casablanca, the Black Queens will have one more chance to prove they belong on football’s biggest stage.
