Monday, December 9
*Eritrea Vs Burundi – 1:30PM
*Somalia Vs Uganda – 4PM
(Fee: Sh5000, Sh20,000; Lugogo and live on Azam TV).
Hosts Uganda Cranes return to action on Monday in the 2019 CECAFA senior Challenge Cup in an encounter against Somalia at StarTimes Stadium, Lugogo.
Uganda will improve their chances of booking a place in the semis if they beat the Somalis – The victory will take Uganda to six points from two games after they beat Burundi 2-1 in their opener.
Despite taking a 2-0 lead in the early stages of the game thanks to Bright Anukani and Fahad Bayo, Uganda struggled to dominate the second half.
Cedric Rurasenga pulled one back for Burundi and the side missed a couple of opportunities to levelled matters.
“I am pleased with the performance we had in the first half, they (players) implemented everything we have been doing in training,” said Cranes coach Jonathan Mckinstry.
“We were not good in the second half probably because one or two players strived away from what he had to do but we knew Burundi would come out in the second half.
“We had the ball, we should have scored many especially Viane (Ssekajugo) and I believe that we did enough to deserve the win.”
This will be the third meeting between Uganda and Somalia this year. Uganda eliminated Somalia in the CHAN qualifiers. Goals from Patrick Kaddu (3) and Allan Kyambadde gave the Cranes a 4-1 win at Lugogo to complete a 7-1 aggregate victory.
Somalia played a goalless draw with Djibouti in the opener, in a game they looked the second best despite having the 12th player (fans) to drive the team forward.
Coach Bashir Hayford blamed the poor weather, as the second half was highlighted by a heavy downpour, for am the result.
“The rains threw everything away, we couldn’t play well on a soggy pitch. Today everything looked good before the rain and both teams played good football,” commented the Nigerian, Hayford.
