WAFCON: Ghana coach Kim Lars Björkegren assesses draw

Head coach of Ghana’s senior female team, Kim Lars Björkegren has described the nation’s group for the 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco as “tough.”

The Black Queens have been handed a challenging Group D, where they will face three-time runners-up Cameroon, 2018 semifinalists Mali and debutants Cape Verde.

Ghana won bronze at the last edition in Morocco under Kim Lars and the Swedish trainer shared his first assessment of the group.

Ghana finished third at the last Women’s AFCON

“It’s going to be a tough group for sure. I watched the Cameroon squad the other day, and I was a little bit surprised. I found out she is from Cameroon. I didn’t know, so it’s an amazing squad.”

“We played against Mali in the previous Women’s World Cup, so we know that they are a good team. From now on, we can start planning for it and make the best possible preparation to achieve a good result.

Kim Lars Bjorkegren has set a target of reaching the FIFA Women’s World Cup as the tournament serves as the route to the global football festival in Brazil for the semifinalists.

“For me, and I think for all of us, it’s a clear target to make the top four, to make the World Cup. That’s going to be very, very important. We have to go for that. If we make the top four, then to push for the gold.”

“We have shown that we keep moving in the right direction the whole time. If we do that, we have the potential to go all the way in the tournament.”

Morocco have been paired against Algeria

“We also need to respect that there are other teams that are thinking the same way. There are probably six, seven, eight teams that can win the gold. We’re not alone. We’re going to do everything we can, and hopefully it’s going to be enough”.

The expanded tournament will comprise sixteen teams with venues spread across Rabat, Casablanca and Fez. There will be two venues in Rabat, one in Casablanca and the other in Fez for the sixteen day tournament.

Hosts Morocco have been paired against 2024 quarterfinalists Algeria, Senegal who made the quarter finals in 2022 and 2024 as well as East Africans Kenya in Group A.

The Group B has 2022 champions South Africa, 2014 second runners-up Cote D’Ivoire alongside Burkina Faso and Tanzania while Group C houses record holders Nigeria, Zambia, Egypt and debutants Malawi.

The tournament format will see the top two teams from each group progress to the knockout phase, starting from the quarter-finals. The competition is set between March 17 and April 3.