Wednesday, July 12
•Uganda Vs Rwanda, 5pm
Uganda Women’s National Football team, the Crested Cranes, will be hoping to ease past Rwanda’s She Amavubi in the first leg of the 2024 Paris Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Qualifiers.
The Crested Cranes are hosting the first leg at the Kigali’s Pele Stadium as Uganda doesn’t have a certified CAF standard Stadium to host the game.
The team will stay in Rwanda for the Second Leg due July 16, 2023.
Uganda beat Tanzania 3-1 in a friend last week at Lugogo before the side left for Kigali.
Opa Clement gave Tanzania a lead before goals from Catherine Nagadya, Fauziah Najjemba and Margaret Kunihira got the job done.
The Crested Cranes camp was boosted by the arrival of defensive midfielder Joan Nabirye after the FK Minsk (Belarus) player joined the team in Kigali.
But Phiona Nabbumba who features for Denmark’s B93, didn’t make the Kigali trip after sustaining an injury.
Its strong to note that the Crested Cranes beat Rwanda 2-0, a brace by Fazila Ikwaput at Njeru during the CECAFA Women Championship last year in June, the last time the two sides met.
It’s strong to note that these qualifiers aim to determine the two teams that will represent Africa at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
If the Crested Cranes overcome She-Amavubi of Rwanda at the first round, they will meet Cameroon who is one of the eight top-ranked nations to have received a bye at the previous round.
A win over two legs on aggregate against Cameroon, will see the Crested Cranes progress to the third round where Nigeria who is fancied to get the better of winner between Ethiopia and Chad, awaits.
And success at the third round is just a tie (fourth round) away from the prestigious Olympics.
In the previous qualifiers, Uganda did not go past this first stage, then falling to Ethiopia after a 4-2 aggregate loss in the qualifiers played in 2019.
