FIXTURES
Saturday, June 4, 2022
Algeria v Uganda Cranes
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Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Uganda Cranes v Niger
The Uganda Cranes face Algeria’s Desert Warriors on Saturday, June 4 in the opening match of their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying campaign. The game is slated for Saturday night in the Algerian capital, Algiers.
It is a massive test for Coach Micho Sredojevic’s goal-shy Cranes, who must figure out a way to become potent for the team to stand a chance of returning to the AFCON Finals.
Despite their decent success in the recent qualifiers, Uganda Cranes have traditionally been limited in the offensive positions; so, Micho must devise a method to make the team more ruthless in front of their opponents’ goal.
Ironically, The Cranes missed out on qualification to the 2021 AFCON Finals in Cameroon earlier this year because of a chronic inability to create and score. And in a group featuring favourites Algeria, neighbours Tanzania and a decent Niger squad, Micho’s side must score goals starting with this weekend’s game.
During the last qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, The Cranes scored a paltry three times in six games. They scored the same number of goals in the 2021 AFCON qualifiers.
In his squad that landed in Algeria on Wednesday night, Micho has Mohammed Shaban, Israel-based Fahad Bayo, skipper Emmanuel Okwi, Farouk Miya, Allan Okello, Martin Kizza, Milton Karisa and England-based Ibra Sekajja as the forwards to choose from.
Apart from Miya and Okwi, who boast of proven experience in Cranes colours, the rest are yet to prove themselves and Saturday’s in Algiers should be an opportune moment.
Much focus will be on 29-year-old Sekajja, who plays in England’s sixth tier at Dulwich Hamlet. He scored six goals last season and he hopes to transform such exploits to the national team on his debut.
Yet beyond the dearth of goals in the Cranes is a creativity problem in the midfield. Time and again strikers are always starved of service and while their quality has been called into question, the team has scarcely demonstrated a palpable ability to fashion chances for its strikers.
In high stakes games where chances will be few and far between, The Cranes will need to be creative. And if not that, the forwards will have to be clinical with the limited chances they get. Micho’s teams are not known to be high-scoring, and that will mean that Bayo and company must be effective and efficient with – as it looks likely – the few opportunities that will come their way.
That said, Micho’s team come face-to-face with an Algerian side led by Riyadh Mahrez, the Manchester City danger man.
Mahrez and his teammates are hot favourites to win this group’s automatic qualification slot to the finals in Ivory Coast next year.
In their last AFCON qualifiers meeting, The Cranes beat Algeria 2-1 in 1998 in Kampala but the Desert Warriors prevailed 2-0 in the return leg for the 2000 AFCON Finals.
