Internationals – Rosella becomes fourth Spur to book World Cup spot, Drew on target
Thu 14 July 2022, 21:00|
Tottenham Hotspur
Rosella Ayane helped Morocco to a 2-1 victory over Botswana in their Women’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final on Wednesday, a result that secured not only their advancement in the competition, but also their place at next year’s World Cup.
Having kept up their 100 per cent record in the group stage with a 1-0 triumph over Senegal last Friday, Rosella’s nation marched into the semi-finals of the AFCON with another impressive display in Rabat and as a result have earned automatic qualification for the World Cup as one of the continental competition’s top four sides.
They’ll now face Nigeria on Monday for a place in the AFCON final.
Rosella is the Club’s fourth player to earn a ticket to the World Cup this week – on Tuesday, Drew Spence scored the fourth goal and Becky Spencer kept a clean sheet in Jamaica’s 4-0 victory over Haiti, which qualified them for the showpiece event as runners-up to USA in Group A of the CONCACAF W Championship in Mexico. Becky played the full 90 minutes, while Drew was withdrawn four minutes from time, with Jamaica now set to face Shelina Zadorsky’s Canada in the semi-finals in San Nicolas de los Garza in the early hours of Friday morning (3am UK time).
By virtue of her side’s participation in the last four of the ‘W’, Shelina is also World Cup-bound. She put in a full 90-minute shift for Canada as they beat Panama 1-0 in their second match of the competition on Saturday and was on the bench for Tuesday’s 2-0 victory over Costa Rica on matchday three which secured their qualification as Group B winners.
Unfortunately, there was no such luck for Finland's Tinja-Riikka Korpela and Eveliina Summanen at the UEFA Women’s Euros this week – their 1-0 defeat to Denmark in Milton Keynes in their second match of the tournament on Tuesday means they cannot now qualify for the knockout stages, having lost 4-1 to Spain at the same venue on matchday one last Friday. Goalkeeper Tinni and midfielder Eveliina have started both games so far – Eveliina was substituted six minutes from time against Spain – and will be looking to finish on a positive note when they take on Germany in their final game on Saturday evening (8pm).
