The Equatorial Guinea women's national football team, nicknamed the Nzalang Femenino, has represented Equatorial Guinea in senior international women's football competition since 2000. It is controlled by the Equatoguinean Football Federation, the governing body for football in Equatorial Guinea.[citation needed]
In the 2008 Women's African Football Championship they defeated the seven-time champions Nigeria 1–0 in the semifinal and went on to win the championship beating South Africa 2–1. They became the first nation other than Nigeria to win the Women's African Football Championship. Equatorial Guinea played at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.
The team won the 2012 African Women's Championship, winning 4–0 in the final against South Africa.
Equatorial Guinea is the third women's team (out of eight) from the Confederation of African Football to qualify for a FIFA Women's World Cup (Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa, Morocco and Zambia being the others).[3]
They defeated South Africa 2–1 in an Olympic Games Qualifier on 18 February 2007, but lost the return leg 4–2. In the 2008 Women's African Football Championship (which they hosted), they went undefeated in Group A which featured Cameroon, Congo, and Mali. They defeated Nigeria 1–0 in the semifinal and went on to win the championship beating South Africa 2–1. They became the first (and, so far, only) nation other than Nigeria to win the Women's African Football Championship. They made their debut in an international tournament at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, losing all three of their group stage matches against Norway, Australia and Brazil.
In 2012, Equatorial Guinea hosted and won the 2012 African Women's Championship. They won the semi-final 2–0 versus Cameroon, and the final 4–0 against South Africa, with two goals by Gloria Chinasa and one each by Tiga (Adriana Aparecida Costa) and the captain Genoveva Añonman.
Due to fielding Jade Boho without completing her one-time switch (from Spain), Equatorial Guinea was disqualified from the Women's Football tournament at the 2012 Olympic Games.[4]
Problems with naturalised players (mainly from Brazil) caused a ban from the 2020 Olympic women's football tournament[5] and the 2019 World Cup.[6]
Between 2006 and 2010, Bilguissa and Salimata Simporé, a sibling duo from Burkina Faso, used to play for Equatorial Guinea – the first as a central defender and the latter as a centre forward. Beyond the mechanism by which they were naturalized (similar to the Brazilians),[clarification needed] the main controversy about the Simporés arose regarding whether they were actually two men. Around April 2011, they were removed from national team by the Italian-born Brazilian coach Marcelo Frigerio, who had recently assumed, just a few months before participating in the World Cup. Since then, the Simporé siblings never were called-up. In 2015, Frigerio, now a former national team coach, told the Brazilian press they are men.[7]
The Equatorial Guinea women's national football team has been known or nicknamed as the "Nzalang Femenino".
The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.
Win Draw Lose Fixture
The following players were called up for the 2024 Women's Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches against the DR Congo on 1 and 5 December 2023.[8]
Caps and goals as of 5 December 2023, after the match against the DR Congo.
The following players have been called up to an Equatorial Guinea squad in the past 12 months.
The list shown below shows the Equatorial Guinea women's national football team all−time international record against opposing nations.
*As of xxxxxx after match against xxxx.
*As ofxxxxx after match against xxxxx.
The following table shows Equatorial Guinea's all-time official international record per opponent: