West Ham United women’s team left-back Inès Belloumou helped Algeria take a big step toward qualifying for the 2026 CAF Women's Africa Cup of Nations with a 2-1 victory in the first leg of their second-round play-off against Cameroon on Thursday evening.
Ghoutia Karchouni opened the scoring midway through the first-half with a tidy finish, which was added to just after the half-hour mark when Marine Dafeur whipped a stunning strike into the top corner, after Claudia Dabda was sent-off for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
Those two efforts proved sufficient to land her side victory at Miloud Hadefi Stadium, despite Ajara Nchout Njoya reducing the deficit from the spot deep into second-half stoppage time.
Having represented Les Fennecs (The Fennec Foxes) at their first-ever Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in the summer, Belloumou’s side hold a 2-1 advantage heading into Tuesday’s second leg, which is set to take place in Douala, Cameroon, at 2.30pm GMT.
Elsewhere, Anouk Denton and Sarah Brasero both featured in international action for England U23s on Thursday evening.
The Young Lionesses were beaten 5-0 by reigning WU23 European champions Germany, where braces from Larissa Mühlhaus and Sophie Weidauer, and a Mathilde Janzen header completed the scoring in Fulda, with the West Ham pair playing the full 90 minutes.
