Uganda has been placed in Group K of the 2025 AFCON Qualifiers at the draws conducted on Thursday in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Uganda will battle 2023 AFCON semifinalists South Africa, Congo Brazzaville, and neighbours South Sudan.
With qualifiers expected to start in September until November, Uganda will be aiming to return to AFCON having missed the last two editions (2023 in Ivory Coast and 2021 in Cameroon).
Namboole will be vital for the team’s qualification having been cleared by CAF after meeting the required standards.
Uganda last played at Namboole during the AFCON qualifiers against Malawi in the 2O21 AFCON Qualifiers in November 2019.
One of the challenges that affected the team in the past was failing to have a reliable striker, inconsistency in the squad, team transition, and poor defence among others but Cranes coach Paul Put has promised to address that before the Qualifiers get underway.
By FIFA rankings, South Africa is far ahead of Uganda ranked in the 59th position compared to Uganda which is in the 94th position. The fact that South Africa was third in the 2023 AFCON finals, poses a big threat to the group. The last five games between Uganda and South Africa have not produced a victory for Uganda, which makes the tie tricky for Put’s side.
Congo Brazzaville who are 19 places below Uganda in the ranking can also cause a setback over Cranes if they are not prepared. The most memorable tie between Uganda and Congo was during the 2013 AFCON Qualifiers when Uganda beat them 4-0. In that game played on June 16, 2012, former Cranes striker Geoffrey Massa who now turned national team manager fired a shot that tore the net.
The other team in the group is South Sudan and on paper, they should be the easiest team to face. However, looking at the past, they have surprised Uganda. They contributed to Uganda’s failure to make it to the 2021 AFCON finals after they beat them 1-0 away from home.
The top two teams in the group stages will qualify for the finals. A total of 24 teams will qualify to play in the final tournament, including automatically qualified hosts Morocco between December 21, 2025, and January 18, 2026.
Source link : https://www.newvision.co.ug/category/news/uganda-cranes-know-opponents-for-2025-afcon-q-NV_191565
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Publish date : 2024-07-05 16:17:20
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