By the
Numbers
Every goal, trend and story from the Women's Africa Cup of Nations - 34 matches and 96 goals, broken all the way down.
Champions
Cameroon
Final
3–0
v Malawi
34
Matches
96
Goals
2.82
Goals / Match
130
Cards
96
goals - 2.82 a game across the whole tournament
76%
of matches won by the team with more shots on target - end product beats territory
25%
of all goals arrived after the 75th minute - the drama came late
2
goal conceded by Cameroon in 6 games - the meanest defence, and the champions
0
goals for Michaely Kyria Bihina, the Golden Boot & our Player of the Tournament
Cameroon's Road to Glory
How the champions marched to the crown
Nobody was tougher to beat. Over 6 matches - 5 of them wins - Cameroon scored 8 and conceded a barely-believable 2 goals: a wall no other side got close to. Tap any game to relive it.
The Goal Rush
All 96 of them - and exactly when they flew in
96 goals in 34 games - 2.82 a match. The late show mattered: 25% of all goals landed after the 75th minute. And the knockouts were no cagier than the group stage - 2.5 goals a game to 2.96.
Goals by Match Minute
25% scored after 75'How Goals Came
Goals per Match
Knockouts outscored the group stage - the opposite of the usual "cagey knockouts" narrative.
What Actually Wins Matches
We stacked the winners against the beaten - the gap says it all
Possession is pretty. Shots on target win football matches. The side with more of them took the win 76% of the time - while simply hogging the ball paid off in just 52%. Winners mustered 5.8 shots on target to the losers' 3.7, a chasm no possession count came close to. The verdict of 2026: end product beats territory, every time.
Possession %
Shots on Target
Pass Accuracy
76%
of matches were won by the team with more shots on target
19 of 25 decisive matches
52%
won by the team with more possession
14 of 27 decisive matches
Verdict: shots on target predicts winning far better than possession does.
Clinical vs Wasteful
Ice-cold finishers and the ones who fluffed their lines
Some teams made chances count; others made you wince. Zambia were lethal, tucking away 47% of everything they put on target. Spare a thought for Ghana: 25 shots on target, just 6 goals, and a 24% return that must have stung.
Most Clinical
Highest conversion
Zambia
47%
Ivory Coast
45%
Cameroon
44%
Malawi
31%
South Africa
30%
Most Wasteful
Lowest conversion
Ghana
24%
Algeria
25%
Morocco
25%
Nigeria
29%
South Africa
30%
Conversion = goals ÷ shots on target. Teams with at least 15 shots on target across the tournament qualify - below that a single goal swings the rate too far to compare fairly.
Players of the Tournament
Ranked by the Sports445 Player Index - goals, assists, and staying out of the book
A goalkeeper cannot win a goals-and-assists index, so this one is ours to call. Bihina conceded once in five starts, kept Nigeria out in the quarter-final, and then saved Cameroon twice from the spot against Morocco to reach the final. The Index below still has its own winner; this is the one we would pick.
Player of the Tournament · our pick
Michaely Kyria Bihina
Cameroon
4
Clean sheets
1
Conceded
5
Starts
Inès Konan
5
0
25
Barbra Banda
5
0
25
Temwa Chawinga
5
0
25
Marie Ngah
5
0
24.5
Thembi Kgatlana
4
0
20
Tabitha Chawinga
4
0
20
Diana Lucas Msewa
2
0
10
Christy Ucheibe
2
0
10
Golden Boot Race
Inès Konan
5
Barbra Banda
5
Temwa Chawinga
5
Marie Ngah
5
Thembi Kgatlana
4
Team of the Tournament
The Sports445 XI - a 4-3-3 built from the numbers
This isn't just a roll-call of goalscorers. Up front, players earn their shirt on goals and assists; at the back, the defence and keeper earn theirs on clean sheets. No surprise, then, that the champions Cameroon own the spine - with the tournament's deadliest attackers let loose out front.
Formation 4-3-3 · attackers ranked on goals + assists, defenders and the keeper on clean sheets kept while starting.
The Style Map
Tiki-taka or route one? Every team's identity, mapped
Every crest is a team, dropped into place by how it played: further right means more of the ball, higher up means more direct (a bigger diet of long balls). What you get is football's oldest argument drawn as a diagonal - the possession purists (Ghana and Morocco) tucked bottom-right, the direct, get-it-forward sides (Ghana and Cape Verde) up top-left. Where a team sits tells you more than the scoreline ever could. Hover a crest for its numbers.
Ghana
59.7% Directness
0
Cape Verde
44.7% Directness
0
Ivory Coast
44.9% Directness
0
Cameroon
48.6% Directness
0
Nigeria
53.5% Directness
0
Egypt
40.4% Directness
0
Zambia
55.9% Directness
0
Algeria
52.9% Directness
0
South Africa
57.5% Directness
0
Burkina Faso
47.4% Directness
0
Tanzania
45.1% Directness
0
Malawi
47.7% Directness
0
Morocco
59% Directness
0
Mali
36.9% Directness
0
Kenya
43% Directness
0
Senegal
44.1% Directness
0
Bottom-right = possession-based sides · Top-left = direct, long-ball sides. Hover or tap a crest for its numbers.
Clean Sheet Kings
The defences that simply refused to be beaten
Cameroon
in 6 games
4
clean
Morocco
in 6 games
4
clean
Senegal
in 3 games
2
clean
Algeria
in 6 games
2
clean
Zambia
in 3 games
1
clean
Ghana
in 5 games
1
clean
Discipline
The referees earned their fee - 130 cards, 3.8 a game - but it rarely turned ugly: just 9 of them red, with Cameroon the most-booked side.
121
Yellow
9
Red
3.8
Per Match
Most-Booked Teams
Cameroon
17
Malawi
12
Nigeria
10
Morocco
9
Ivory Coast
8
Tanzania
8
Records
Biggest Win
Zambia
6-0
Egypt
Meanest Defences
Fewest goals conceded per game · minimum 3 games played
Cameroon
6
0.33
2 conceded
2
Morocco
6
0.33
2 conceded
3
Zambia
3
0.67
2 conceded
4
Senegal
3
0.67
2 conceded
5
Algeria
6
1.00
6 conceded
6
Ghana
5
1.00
5 conceded
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Goal counts reflect goals scored in normal and extra time, in line with official records - penalty-shootout goals from knockout ties are excluded. Individual player tallies are derived from match event data and may differ marginally from official figures.