What to know about Banyana and Nigeria’s reignited rivalry

Here are some crucial facts about Banyana Banyana’s fixture against old rivals Nigeria in Casablanca.

Banyana and Nigeria face off for one of CAF’s two spots at the World Cup intercontinental playoffs. The game is at Moulay Rachid Stadium in Casablanca at 10pm, SA-time.

Banyana and Nigeria, who are the champions of the last two editions of Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon), find themselves having to fight for an intercontinental playoff berth because they lost their quarterfinals of the ongoing Wafcon in Morocco to the hosts and Cameroon, respectively. The four semifinals at this Wafcon earned automatic World Cup qualification.

The intercontinental play-offs will be played in two phases between November and February next year.

The preliminary phase will consist of six teams — two each from AFC and CAF, one from OFC, and the lower-ranked team from Conmebol — competing at a centralised venue in November–December.

The teams will be drawn into three tiers to play a set of predetermined matches, with teams from the same confederation barred from facing each other. The top two teams from this phase will advance to the final phase.

The final phase will consist of six teams — two teams advancing from the preliminary phase and four teams who received a bye; two from Concacaf, one from Uefa, and the higher-ranked team from Conmebol — competing in single knockout matches to determine the final three qualifiers for the event in Brazil.

The teams will be ranked according to the most recent Fifa rankings. The three highest-ranked teams will be seeded into pathways, and the other teams will be drawn against them. Teams from the same confederation cannot be drawn into the same pathway.

• Ndebele is in Morocco, courtesy of Banyana Banyana’s sponsor, Sasol.