Uganda to face Rwanda in 2016 Olympics qualifiers

By Swalley Kenyi

2016 Africa Olympic qualifiers

May 23

Rwanda v Uganda

Information that Uganda will take on Rwanda in the 2016 Olympic qualifiers is a familiar to national team coach Micho Sredojevic.

Micho has been preparing a squad for the qualifiers with Rwanda in mind as Uganda's first opponent even before the Amavubi U-23 team ejected Somalia 3-1 on aggregate over the weekend.

“I’m happy with the team preparations. Everybody is eager to play Rwanda. I’m sure we can achieve against Rwanda but we cannot underrate any opponent,” Micho said..

The first leg of the qualifiers will be at Amavubi stadium in Kigali on May 23 and the Kobs team has been training at the Phillip Omondi stadium.

The winner between Uganda and Rwanda will face Egypt in the last round of qualifiers for the Africa U-23 Championship, due in December 5-19 in Senegal.

Out of eight teams, the top three sides at this Championship will qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Micho has summoned a squad of about 50 players to train for the Olympic and CHAN qualifiers.

Only goalkeeper Benjamin Ochan, Hakim Ssenkuumba, Herman Wasswa and Joseph Ochaya are the players, who did not train on Sunday. Timothy Awanyi, Tom Masiko, William Wadri and Martin Kiiza, who are on the U-23 squad, only watched the rest from the stands.

Micho has clearly spelt out training programmes for the U-23, CHAN and the senior Uganda Cranes teams’ Olympic, 2016 Africa Nations Championships and 2017 Africa Nations Cup qualifiers that will come in short successions this year.

Uganda Cranes play Botswana in the 2017 AFCON game qualifier on June 13, 2015 at Mandela National stadium, Namboole.

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