CECAFA U-20 CHALLENGE CUP: Eritrea’s team travels 400km to face Zanzibar in quarter final clash
The Eritrean team has this morning traveled close to 400km from Gulu to Jinja ahead of the Cecafa U-20 Challenge Cup quarter final clash against Zanzibar on Sunday.
Eritrea qualified for the knock out stage after topping Group A. Coach Efem Alemseged’s team kicked off with a 1-1 draw against Uganda before they again drew 3-3 with Sudan.
They went ahead to demolish Djibouti 7-0 and tooped the group with a better goal difference ahead of Sudan and Uganda who also had the same number of points.
Coach Alemseged has made it clear that they will have to be very cautious against Zanzibar because this is now the knock out stage. “We have been playing on grass for the group stage and now move to the articial ground which calls for caution,” added the coach.
Eritrea will look to their leading scorer in the tournament with four goals Yoseif Mawel Tesfai to produce the magic and guide them to the semi final stage.
But Zanzibar’s coach Nasor Sawn Mohamad has said his players are ready to play their hearts out.
“We are lucky we have played three matches on this pitch at the Fufa technical center and that is an advantage for us. But we need to try and improve in-front of goal and get the goals,” added Niyonkuru.
To reach the quarter final stage Zanzibar finished third in Group B after losing by a similar 5-0 score to Kenya and Tanzania. The Zanzibar team only managed a 2-1 win over Ethiopia.
The four quarter final matches will be played on Sunday before the semi finals on October 2nd and the final and play-off on October 5th.
