Friday, June 21
Egypt 1-0 Zimbabwe

Saturday, June 22
DR Congo Vs Uganda Cranes – 5:30PM

Uganda Cranes will be seeking to make a mark at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations. The dream, starts today when they take on neighbours DR Congo.

Without doubt, Uganda’s strength lie at the back – a strong defence that is led by shot stopper and captain Denis Onyango. However, Uganda’s ceiling will be decided by their ability to score.

Uganda has scored 18 goals in six appearances – The side scored only one in 2017 AFCON, courtesy of Farouk Miya against Mali in the last game.

Patrick Henry Kaddu will be given the scoring burden, and he has already showed that he can take the opportunity when he headed in Godfrey Walusimbi’s lofty cross at Namboole against Cape Verde in the 72nd minute to send Uganda through.

The former Maroons player, was an understudy of the likes of Geoffrey Sserunkuma, Derrick Nsibambi and Shaban Mohammed before stepping into their shoes at KCCA, and he was an integral figure as the club won the league.

The Luzira boy will seek to showcase his monkey dance strokes at the big stage, and this year’s AFCON provides the best platform.

Farouk Miya, Emmanuel Okwi, Abdul Lumala among others will also be required to lift the scoring weight.

DR Congo Hungry For Success

The Leopards have won the AFCON title two times in 1968 and 1974. Since then, it has been so close yet still far.

This is their golden generation and going out of the group stages is not just their only target. They want to go as far as winning it.

The side has cream of stars including Yannick Bolassie, Cedrick Bakambu, Yusuf Mulumbu and Arthur Masuaku among others.

They have beaten Uganda four times, lost three and no draw.

What they said:

Sebastien Desabre (Uganda Coach) – The most important game for us is against DR Congo. Its our first game and it will decide how far we will go. We want to beat Congo so as we don’t play with pressure in the following games.

Yusuf Mulumbu (DRC Captain) – We have faulted on many occasions but we have to make sure that we don’t slip again. We want to win this title, we went through hard times in the qualifiers and they made us strong

In the last two friendlies, Uganda drew goalless against Turkmenistan before shocking Ivory Coast 1-0. After drawing 0-0 with Burkina Faso, DR Congo needed a late Arthur Masuaku goal in the 87th minute to draw Kenya 1-1 in Madrid.

Facts To Note

• This is the first encounter between DR Congo and Uganda in the Africa Cup of Nations.
• DR Congo are unbeaten in their last nine group games at AFCON, although seven of those have been draws (W2).
• Uganda have lost 14 of their 19 games at AFCON (W3 D2). Their three wins all came in the 1978 edition when they reached the final against Ghana (0-2).
• Uganda have kept only one clean sheet in their 19 AFCON games. It was in a 3-0 win against Morocco in March 1978.