Women's World Cup 2023: The Africans to watch

The Women's World Cup gets underway on 20 July, when both co-hosts - Australia and New Zealand - play their opening games.

Africa will field four teams at the finals for the first time, after world governing body Fifa expanded the tournament from 24 to 32 teams.

Reigning continental champions South Africa will be joined by Nigeria, who boast nine African titles, and World Cup debutants Morocco and Zambia at the month-long tournament which ends on 20 August.

Ahead of an event where Africa has yet to break the quarter-final barrier, BBC Sport Africa profiles four key players for the continent's representatives.

There is no player bigger in African women's football than Oshoala - and for good reason.

After exploding onto the international scene in 2014 when she was top scorer and best player at the Under-20 World Cup, Oshoala has consistently been one of the continent's top players.

Having won three Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon), and been player of the tournament at two of them, she has also scored at both the 2015 and 2019 World Cups.

If she nets in this edition, she will become the first African to score at three Women's World Cups and may well add a record-extending sixth African Women's Footballer of the Year award to her growing trophy cabinet.

The Barcelona star comes into the World Cup after a fourth successive season hitting over 20 goals and a second straight year as top scorer for the reigning European champions.

On her day, very few defenders can cope with Oshoala, given she is the complete forward able to dominate with her strength and pace, but it's her intelligent movement both on and off the ball that makes her stand out.

Ruled out of last year's Wafcon with a knee injury picked up in the opening match, she