Cecafa quarter-final: Stars in Rwanda test

BY ERNEST NDUNDA

KENYA: Harambee Stars clash with Rwanda this afternoon hoping to advance to the semi-finals of the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup, which enters the quarter-final phase this weekend at the Mombasa County Stadium.

The home boys, defending champions Uganda, neighbouring Tanzania and Rwanda were expected in Mombasa yesterday ahead of their today’s matches. Harambee Stars were planned to train under floodlights at the match venue.

The other four quarter-finalists, Ethiopia, Sudan, Zambia and Burundi fly to Mombasa today ahead of their tomorrow’s matches.

The Kenyans face Rwanda in the second quarter-final match this afternoon at 4pm is a match expected to be a thriller as Harambee Stars have been improving by each game. Stars’ coach Adel Amrouche knows what Kenyans are expecting from him, especially this afternoon when he lines up his best team to face Rwanda.

Amrouche must have learnt Rwanda better during their opponent’s preliminary matches and time is rife for him to unleash his secret weapon to overcome the Rwandans.

Rwanda will, however, be out to knock out Harambee Stars and deny them a chance of enhancing their chances of winning the title they narrowly lost to Uganda in last year’s final in Kampala. Harambee Stars will face either the Cranes or Kilimanjaro Stars if they get past Rwanda this afternoon.

Defending champions

Prior to Stars and Rwanda clash, defending champions Uganda Cranes take on former champions Tanzania Mainland’s Kilimanjaro Stars in another match expected to be full of action.

Tomorrow, Zambia and Burundi play first at 2pm before the last quarter-final clash between Ethiopia and Sudan.

Excitement is all over Mombasa and its environs after Mombasa County was granted the opportunity to host the quarter-finals. The fans are waiting the quarter-final action and are for the opinion that Harambee Stars would go past Rwanda this afternoon as Mombasa had not hosted such tournament in the recent years.

Thursday matches were completed with Rwanda in Group C, gaining qualification as the second best third-placed team at the expense of Zanzibar who were eliminated in Group A. Rwanda scraped through with a 1-0 win over Eritrea at the Kenyatta Stadium, Machakos.

At the Nyayo National Stadium, Uganda beat Sudan 1-0 to clinch the top spot in Group C. Harambee Stars topped against Ethiopia after the toss of a coin to decide the first and second team in the pool after they tied.

 QUARTER FINALS:

Today:

Uganda (C1) v Tanzania (B2)

 Kenya (A1) v Rwanda (Q2)

 Sun, Dec 8: Zambia (B1) v Burundi (Q2)

Ethiopia (A2) v Sudan (C2)]