Malawi, tournament debutants who had already stunned reigning champions Nigeria in the group stage, responded before the interval through star forward Temwa Chawinga to level the tie at 1-1.
Ghana pushed hard for a second-half winner and briefly thought they had found one when Doris Boaduwaa turned the ball home, only for the effort to be chalked off following a VAR review.
Malawi made the Black Queens pay for those missed chances late on, with Rose Smith Kadzere breaking clear to fire home the decisive goal as the match entered its closing stages, sending the Scorchers through to the semi-final and confirming their own place at the 2027 World Cup in the process.
The defeat brings a disappointing end to a campaign in which the Black Queens had shown genuine promise, topping their group stage matches before edging past a resolute Mali side 1-1 on away goals discipline to reach the last eight.
Despite the setback in Rabat, Ghana’s pursuit of a return to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, a feat last achieved in 2007, is not over.
Under the qualification structure for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the four teams eliminated at the WAFCON quarter-final stage are not sent home empty-handed; they instead enter a play-in route that still offers a path to Brazil.
Ghana will face Côte d’Ivoire in Casablanca on Thursday for a place in the intercontinental play-off preliminary phase. Victory would send the Black Queens into a round-robin stage against opponents drawn from the Asian, Oceanian and South American confederations, with the top two finishers advancing to a six-team knockout phase, alongside sides handed byes from CONCACAF, UEFA and CONMEBOL, where a win would finally confirm qualification for the 2027 World Cup.