Tournament hosts Morocco have all but booked their place into the knockout stages of the TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

The Atlas Lionesses strengthened their position in Group A of the with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Algeria in a tense Maghreb derby on Thursday night.

Sanaa Mssoudy scored the only goal of the match in the 84th minute as the Atlas Lionesses found a late breakthrough against a disciplined Algerian side.

Both teams had gone into the fixture with opening victories, Morocco having beaten Kenya 4-0 while Algeria defeated Senegal 2-0, making this one of the most important early matches in the group.

The result means Morocco have now taken six points from their first two matches.