A big part of Cranes’ fans and players welcomed the 2022 Fifa World Cup Qualification phase with open arms after the second round draw in Cairo, Egypt on Tuesday night pitted Uganda with Mali, neighbours Kenya and Rwanda in Group E.
Now Uganda will bid to make the top spot to advance to the third round and illuminate chances of progressing to Qatar 2022.
This is one of the two groups among the 10 of four teams without a team that has ever qualified for the World Cup.
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It however, leaves room for unpredictability and Uganda will play four derby matches against Rwanda’s Amavubi and Kenya’s Harambee Stars during the period beginning October later this year.
Uganda Cranes’ coach Jonathan McKinstry knows they must take a cautious approach to this phase.
“On the footballing level, obviously, Uganda has done better than Kenya and Rwanda in recent years,” noted McKinstry via fufa.co.ug.
Rwanda stunned Uganda to qualify for the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals in Tunisia while Kenya, frustrated the Cranes with two goalless stalemates during the 2012 Afcon Qualifiers.
“Derby games can throw up surprising results and are so unpredictable but we will play them with high perfection and a lot of focus. We shall be fully focused and professional to make sure we get the results we need,” said the man who tutored Rwanda between 2015 and 2016.
Top seeds Mali are building a unit that has players who recently won the Afcon U17 Cup in Gabon in 2017 and the U20 continental title in Niger last year.
The same crop came fourth at the 2017 Fifa U17 World Cup and were eliminated on penalties by Argentina in the 2019 Fifa U20 World Cup in Poland.
In the previous two meetings against Uganda, Mali played out a 2-all draw during the Chan finals in Rwanda four years ago and then a 1-all draw during the 2017 Afcon in Gabon.
“Mali is very interesting opponents who are so unpredictable with young and talented players so we just need to make sure we use our experience to get the results we want from them,” added McKinstry.
The top teams from the 10 groups will meet in a two-legged contests at the third round of the qualifiers to determine Africa’s five representatives for Qatar.
2022 FIFA WORLD CUP - QATAR
QUALIFYING POOLS - AFRICA
GROUP A: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Djibouti
GROUP B: Tunisia, Zambia, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea
GROUP C: Nigeria, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Liberia
GROUP D: Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Malawi
GROUP E: Mali, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda
GROUP F: Egypt, Gabon, Libya, Angola
GROUP G: Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia
GROUP H: Senegal, Congo, Namibia, Togo
GROUP I: Morocco, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan
GROUP J: DR Congo, Benin, Madagascar, Tanzania
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This writer is a global broadcaster and as well scribe with Daily Monitor Newspaper and sports presenter with Radio One FM 90 in Kampala. Follow him on Twitter: @AllanDarren and his Facebook Page: Darren Allan Kyeyune