Ghana crash out of African Women's Championship

Ghana lost on penalties to Cameroon in the final round of qualifying for the African Women's Championship.

It means that Cameroon will have two major tournaments this year after they reached the London Olympics that kick off next month.

South Africa, who are also Olympic-bound, also advanced to the AWC finals with a win over Zambia.

Holders Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Senegal and DR Congo will join hosts Equatorial Guinea in November's finals.

Cameroon and Ghana drew 1-1 on Sunday to make it 2-2 on aggregate to force a dramatic penalty shoot-out.

The Indomitable Lionesses eventually won 9-8 on penalties to knock out Ghana, who for the first ever time have failed to reach the AWC finals.

South Africa scored a thrilling 2-1 victory over Zambia in the second leg of their qualifier to complete a convincing 6-2 aggregate victory.

Portia Modise continued her prolific goal-scoring form by netting her 70th goal in her 91st appearance for the national team in the 18th minute.

The Zambians struck back almost immediately with a goal from Mwila Bowa in the 20th minute after the South African defence failed to clear their lines.

Modise restored South Africa's lead with a powerfully-struck left-footed effort two minutes into the second half.

"I am happy with the effort of the team and the different combinations we tried," said Banyana Banyana head coach Joseph Mkhonza.

"It's also good to see that all the players we fielded today put up a good fight.

"As I've always said, it's not always good to rely on certain players but to also give others an equal opportunity to play.

"Now we need to focus on building certain areas like goal scoring."

The most convincing qualifiers though were Ivory Coast who thrashed hosts Mozambique 5-0 to make it a massive 12-0 overall.

Ethiopia also managed to win 1-0 away from home to complete a 3-1 aggregate victory over Tanzania.

Reigning champions Nigeria will be in Equatorial Guinea to defend their title after 4-0 win over visiting Zimbabwe, that made it 6-0 in total.

Senegal made it to their first ever AWC finals but needed penalties at home to beat Morocco after both legs ended goalless.

DR Congo were given a bye in the third round after their opponents Equatorial Guinea were chosen hosts of the finals.