CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup 7th -19th December 2019 Kampala – Uganda.
Djibouti vs Somalia- Mandela National Stadium 1:30 pm
Uganda vs Burundi- Star Times Stadium 4:00pm
Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup 2019 kicks off today with nine countries out of 12 being lately confirmed after the withdraw of Rwanda, Ethiopia and the guests Dr Congo.
All the nine countries already touched down Kampala with the late arrivals being Kenya who arrived yesterday 3pm.
Two stadiums; Star times stadium and Mandela national stadium were the confirmed host venues earlier in the week reversing the decision of having the tournament in Jinja.
Uganda shall be taking on Burundi today evening in the second but the official opening match at Star times stadium in Lugogo after an afternoon faceoff between Djibouti and Somalia in Nambole.
This shall be Burundi’s right time to revenge over humiliating 3-0 home and away CHAN qualifiers defeat that saw Uganda qualify on 6-0 aggregate to have a 5th consecutive time appearance.
Burundi has failed to win Uganda in the last five occasions with the tournament hosts having won four and drew one.
Today’s meeting shall be the seventeenth having mate sixteen times before. In those meetings, Uganda has won 11 matches while Burundi managed to win only and sharing spoils on 3 occasions.
Burundi’s two wins came from group stages of this tournament the first being a 2-0 win in the 25th edition that was hosted by Rwanda in 2001. The two teams were placed in group B and Burundi finished in the second place with six points three points a head of 3rd placed Uganda who also qualified but as best losers. Both teams did not exceed quarter finals.
The recent one was a 1-0 win that came ten years later in the 35th edition that was hosted by Tanzania in 2011.
Still both countries qualified for the quarter finals but Burundi did not go past that stage while Uganda went as far as the finals beating Rwanda 3-2 in penalty after a 2-2 draw to lift a 12th tittle.
Burundi shall be looking for a possible revenge win in a match that is likely to determine the winner of the group.
Uganda Cranes head coach Jonathan Mckinstry yesterday trimmed his squad to the required 20 and the three guns Fahad Bayo, viane ssekajugo and Allan Okello who damaged Burundi at the last meeting found themselves on his army.
“The decision of selecting the 20 players was difficult. We have had 26 players in the previous days but me and my coaches discussed for more than two hours to have the final list. The six players who missed out were just un lucky because they are also good,”Said McKinstry after trimming the squad.
Possible starting line up.
Charles Lukwago (Gk),Paul Willa, Mustapha Kizza, Halid Lwaliwa (cpt) ,John Revita, Nicholas Kasozi, Shafik Kajimu,Allan Okello, Muzamiru Mutyaba, Viane Ssekajugo, Fahad Bayo.
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