Casablanca — TWIGA Stars Head Coach Bakari Shime has hailed Tanzania's historic victory over defending champions South Africa at the Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), unveiling that his side has shifted attention to a crucial clash against Burkina Faso.
Tanzania claimed a first-ever WAFCON victory with a dramatic 2-1 win over South Africa at Moulay Rachid Stadium, in Casablanca, Morocco on Monday, thanks to goals from Diana Msewa and substitute Hasnath Ubamba.
The result ended a wait spanning seven tournament matches for Twiga Stars, who had previously recorded one draw and five defeats since making their debut in the tournament in 2010.
Despite the landmark achievement, Shime said the team had already put the victory behind them with a full focus on securing early qualification for the quarterfinals.
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"After today's win, now the match is behind us. Our priority now is Burkina Faso," Shime said after the match.
"It's a do-or-die game because we want to secure the points early, qualify for the quarter-finals and have enough time to recover before the knockout stage."
The victory lifted Tanzania to second place in Group B behind leaders Ivory Coast, who opened their campaign with a 4-1 win over Burkina Faso.
Twiga Stars' victory over Burkina Faso in the next match would secure for Tanzania a place in the quarter-finals with a game to spare.
Shime highlighted that his players struggled to execute the original game plan, partly due to the quality of the opposition and the pressure of the opening fixture.
"We didn't play according to our original game plan," he said.
"We scored first, but we didn't manage the game well after taking the lead, allowing South Africa to come back and equalise from a corner."
The coach said his technical bench made key tactical adjustments during the interval to deny South Africa a space behind Tanzania's defence, while improving the team's counter-attacking approach.
" We corrected our mistakes at half-time, blocked the spaces they wanted to exploit and improved our transitions. In the end, we scored the winning goal, and that gave us a very good result," he said.
The victory marked another milestone in Tanzania's growing presence at the continental tournament.
In 2010, Twiga Stars lost all three matches on their WAFCON debut, including a 2-1 defeat to South Africa.
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After a 14-year absence, they returned to the finals in 2024 and earned first tournament point with a 1-1 draw against the same opponents.
Now competing at consecutive WAFCON tournaments, for the first time, Tanzania have taken another step forward by defeating the reigning champions to record a maiden victory at the competition.
