Uganda Cranes will play two friendly matches against Ethiopia as part of preparations for the forthcoming African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier matches against Tanzania.
Coach Milutin ‘Micho” Sredojevic confirmed the two games indicating this will help in fine tuning the team before facing Tanzania.
“From 25th of July when we started preparations, I believe we have done a good job considering players were coming from off season. We now have to engage a polishing aspect and on Thursday, we shall be flying to Ethiopia where the team will play two friendly matches on Friday and Sunday,” he confirmed to Fufa media.
The gaffer believes the two games against Ethiopia will be a good test to the team.
“Ethiopia is a good team and 95% of their national team players feature in their local league. They beat Egypt in the AFCON Qualifiers and that speaks volumes,” he added.
From Ethiopia, Uganda Cranes will head to Zanzibar for acclimatization before going to Tanzania.
“It is unfortunate that we could not secure the friendly game against Malawi and thus we opted for plan B which is going to Zanzibar where we shall just acclimatize to weather conditions in Tanzania. We shall have a friendly match on Wednesday next week before facing Tanzania on Sunday.”
Coach Micho also confirmed Vipers SC players will join the camp on Wednesday morning.
“We had summoned ten players from Vipers but five will travel with us and they will join camp on Wednesday morning,” he indicated.
Uganda will face Tanzania in the first leg on 28th August at Benjamin Mkapa National Stadium while the return leg will be played on 3rd September at St. Mary’s Stadium, Kitende.
