Uganda steps up preparations for AFCON
Kampala, Uganda (PANA) – Uganda's national football team, Cranes, has gone into residential training hoping to make their seventh showing at the continental showpiece slated to take place in Egypt a memorable one.
Uganda featured prominently in the 1970s when Idi Amin was president, contesting the finals in 1978. But they then faded off the continental football map, failing to make an appearance at the finals for nearly 40 years until 2017.
When they returned to AFCON in 2017, the Cranes failed to make an impression, going down one-nil to both Ghana and Egypt before collecting their only point of the tournament in a 1-1 draw with Mali.
After registering a second successive qualification for the AFCON showpiece to take place in Egypt late June, Uganda’s French coach, Sebastien Desabre, is keen to make an impression.
On Sunday, he took his players into a residential training camp in Kampala and announced that he has lined up four friendlies, including one with Cote d'Ivoire on June 15. This tie is slated to take place in Abu Dhabi in an attempt to acclimatise the players to conditions close to those in Egypt.
Uganda will face hosts Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe in a group Desabre has referred to as “tricky”.
-0- PANA EM/AR 13May2019
