Malawi’s Women’s National Football Team, the Scorchers, have written themselves into the history books after defying the odds to reach the semi-finals of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations – and secure a maiden place at the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup – with a stunning 2-1 victory over Ghana’s Black Queens on Sunday night. The remarkable triumph means Malawi will now stand among 32 nations competing across 64 matches and eight host cities when the World Cup kicks off in Brazil – a staggering achievement for a team that arrived at this year’s tournament as the lowest-ranked of all 16 qualifiers. The second half became a fierce battle for supremacy, with possession split evenly between the two sides as neither team could find a clear advantage. Ghana threw everything at the Scorchers in the closing stages in a desperate bid to force extra time, but Malawi’s defence held firm to seal one of the greatest results in the history of the country’s football. Malawi will now face Algeria in Wednesday’s semi-final, kicking off at 19:00hrs at the Stade Olympique de Rabat, as the remarkable Scorchers fairytale continues to capture the imagination of an entire nation already dreaming of a place in the final.