Uganda Cranes football team managed to register a staggering win against Cape Verde on Saturday which means that the East African nation gets to appear at the continents most prestigious competition for the second time in a row.
Uganda last appeared at the African Cup of Nations in the just concluded tournament in 2017 where they managed to only master a point in the group stages.
Before appearing at the 2017 African Cup of Nations, Uganda had taken over 33 years before making it to Africa’s biggest footballing stage.
After the tournament, there were several changes that happened to the Uganda Cranes and top among them was the departure of Coach Micho who had finally broken the curse. The Serbian left under what many considered rather unfortunate circumstances.
With Micho off to South Africa to manage Orlando Pirates, the task fell to Sebastian Desabre who has had a good spell managing some of the biggest clubs in African football. The new manager however, suffered a lot of criticism after failing to master a win after playing 11 games.
He later on managed to get things together after a faltering performance against Tanzania where the Cranes drew that game and later registered a comfortable win against Lesotho both home and away which meant that Uganda only needed a point against Cape Verde at Nambole.
At Nambole, all that the Cranes needed was a single point to qualify for the AFCON 2019 that will be in Cameroon and from the looks of things, the boys were playing out for exactly that a single point.
The fans who managed to get into the stadium were getting irritated and couldn’t handle watching their side throwing away perfectly good chances to win the game and seal the group.
It was KCCA’s Patrick Kadu who slotted home for the Uganda Cranes which sent the fans in all sorts of celebrations and noise.
The Cranes qualify for AFCON as the first team to go 5 games without being beaten and conceding a goal. Veteran goalie Denis Onyango, applauded the fans and thanked the players and managerial staff for putting in the work to help guide the nation back to Nations cup.
Uganda will now take on East African rivals Tanzania in the final game knowing well that they have qualified and will be hoping that Tanzania can also join them next year in Cameroon.
Tanzania will need to win against Uganda if they are to seal their place while hoping that Lesotho can spoil the party and beat Cape Verde in their final game.
Read: The Tale Of Suspect Refereeing in Ugandan Football
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