Uganda Cranes and Niger shared the spoils in a one all draw at St Mary’s Stadium, Kitende in the second Group F game of the 2023 TotalEnergies Afcon qualifiers on Wednesday.
Despite a dominant start and taking the lead in the first half, Uganda was not successful in guarding their lead eventually gave it way in the second half.
Milton Karisa scored Uganda’s only goal in the 43rd minute but the visitors fought back to recoup a point through Mahamadu Sabo.
The match saw Cranes coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic make various changes with introduction of the likes of Fahad Bayo who missed the first encounter due to documentation issues,Abdul Aziz Kayondo and Bobosi Byaruhanga.
The first chance of the game came in the tenth minute when Emmanuel Okwi drifted off the left wing but his low strike was blocked.
Niger goalkeeper was forced to make double saves denying Miya first before saving kayondo’s cross.
Niger’s custodian proved to be the messiah and the great wall of Niger as he once again denied Miya after Fahad Bayo forced him into a mistake but he recovered to stop Miya’s effort.
The breakthrough came two minutes into the break when Karisa’s intended cross curved into the back of the net.
Despite the cranes’ efforts to keep the lead,the visitors found their equalizer 19 minutes to full-time when Sabo found a hole through Uganda’s defence before firing into the top right corner of goal.
This leaves the Uganda cranes in a very difficult area as far as qualification for the 2023 AFCON is concerned .
They will be looking forward to resurrect and redeem their qualification hopes when they face Tanzania in a double header in the next encounter .
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