Farouk Miya
(right) scored to qualify Uganda for the 2017 Nations Cup in Gabon
|
Uganda have qualified for
the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time since 1978 after beating Comoros
on Sunday.
BBC
Sport report continues:
Their
1-0 victory secured their place at next year's finals in Gabon as one of the
two best group runners-up.
Group
D rivals Burkina Faso also qualified with a late 2-1 win over Botswana
to finish top of the table.
Tunisia and DR
Congo qualified as winners of their groups and Togo went through
as the second best group runners-up on goal difference.
Sixteen
teams will compete at next year's tournament, which runs from 14 January to 5
February: the 13 group winners and two best group runners-up, plus hosts Gabon.
Algeria,
Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Morocco, Senegal and
Zimbabwe had booked their places before Sunday's matches.
Burkina
Faso, who lost to Nigeria in the 2013 final, left it very late to guarantee
their qualification after Prejuce Nakoulma's 18th-minute opener was cancelled
out by a Botswana equalizer from the penalty spot.
Visitors
Botswana fought to hold their opponents, despite having Lesego Galenamotlhale
dismissed on 61 minutes and Kabelo Dambe sent off with two minutes of normal
time remaining.
But
Banou Diawara struck deep into injury time for the Burkinabe, who had Steeve
Yago sent off moments before, to give them the victory and 13 points from their
six group games.
Uganda
also reached 13 points, thanks to a 35th-minute winner by Farouk Miya in
Kampala, but they finished in second place in the group because of a inferior
head-to-head record against Burkina Faso.
However,
it was enough to send the Cranes to the finals for the first time for 38 years.
Some Ugandan players raised their arms and others sank to their knees at the
end of the match.
Uganda's last appearance at the Nations Cup ended in a runners-up spot when they lost to Ghana in the final.
No comments:
Post a Comment