Nigeria and Morocco have been busy with early 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup preparations during the October female football international window.
Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia are Africa’s four representatives at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand will jointly host from July 20-August 20 after reaching the 2022 Women’s AFCON semifinals.
South Africa won the WAFCON in July, hosts Morocco were the runners-up, and Zambia won Bronze after beating Nigeria 1-0 in the third-place playoff.
The October women’s friendly schedule saw Nigeria travel to Japan while Morocco is currently in Spain. But Zambia’s friendly against The Netherlands on October 6 was cancelled due to visa complications for Bruce Mwape’s side in what would have been the teams’ debut visit to Europe.
Record 11-time African champions Nigeria were in Kobe on October 6, where they lost 2-0 to fellow 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup finalists Japan.
German-based striker Mina Tanaka of Bayer Leverkusen scored a brace for Japan in a match that took 64 minutes for the first goal to arrive.
Tanaka’s second goal came four minutes later when she converted a penalty. Morocco played the first of their two friendlies on Thursday and lost 4-0 to Poland in Seville.
Ewa Pajor put Poland one-up into the break in the 33rd minute, and Natalia Padila scored the second goal in the 52nd.
Halftime substitute Natalia Worbel and Nikola Karczewska wrapped up the night with goals in the 56th and 87th minutes, respectively.
Victorious Poland did not qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Morocco remains in Andalusia but switches base from Seville to Jerez where they will face fellow FIFA Women’s World Cup finalists Canada on Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament draws will be made on October 22 in Auckland, New Zealand.
