Published Saturday, 04  November 2023

Athletico d’ Abidjan and SC Casablanca will both be playing their first games at the CAFWCL Finals.

This represents a fifth meeting between a Moroccan club and WAFU region opponents at the CAFWCL.

Moroccan clubs record when facing WAFU opponents at the CAFWCL reads P4 W3 D0 L1.

While these teams are competing in the finals for the first time the only previous clashes between a Moroccan club and WAFU opponents, saw SC Casablanca’s rivals AS FAR defeat Rivers Angels of Nigeria 3-0 in their opening game in 2021.

Also in 2021 AS FAR lost to Hasacaas Ladies of Ghana in the Semi-finals and in 2022 they defeated Determine Girls of Liberia in the Group Stages and Bayelsa Queens of Nigeria in the last four.

All four of the previous clashes between Moroccan clubs and West African opponents at the finals have produced a winner.

This game also represents a first meeting between a host team at the finals and a team from North Africa.

Athletico FC d’ Abidjan (CIV)

They are the first West African team to play host to the CAF Women’s Champions League.

Cote d’ Ivoire becomes the fifth West African country to be represented at the CAFWCL along with Ghana, Liberia, Mali and Nigeria.

Athletico are the third host club of the CAFWCL following on from Wadi Degla of Egypt who hosted the first edition in 2021 and Morocco’s AS FAR hosts of the 2022 event.

They are the 2022-23 Cote d’Ivoire Champions and will be making their tournament debut.Athletic are also the first team from the Cote d’ Ivoire to qualify for the competition.

Went undefeated through their league campaign last season and won 17 games and drew just one game. The won their final 11 league games of the season.

In previous additions of the finals, the hosts have begun with victories.

Wadi Degla began with a 3-1 win over AS Mande of Mali in 2021, although they failed to win their next two games – losing and drawing as they exited the tournament in the group stages.

In 2022 AS FAR became the first host club to win the CAFWCL. They began with a 1-0 win over Simba Queens before eventually going on to lift the trophy.

Athletico will be looking to become just the second team from the WAFU region to reach the final after 2021 runners up Hasaacas Ladies of Ghana and become the second hosts along with 2022 winners AS FAR to win the title.

SC Casablanca

They are Morocco’s second representative at the finals along with AS FAR who are the defending champions.

Morocco are the first country to have two clubs represent them at the same CAFWCL finals.

AS FAR who are SC Casablanca’s rivals won their opening game in both the 2021 and 2022 editions, leaving SC Casablanca to keep up their country’s 100% record in opening games at the finals.

Won the UNAF Qualifiers defeating Afak Relizane 4-3 in their opening game, then 3-1 against Tunisian side ASF Sousse and Wadi Degla 6-1 in their final game.

Chaymaa Mourtaji was their top scorer in the qualifiers with five goals.

The team from Casablanca was only formed in 2019 and has qualified for their debut finals.

Morocco joins Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania as countries who have had more than one representative at the CAFWCL.