CHAN: Desabre positive ahead of Zambia tie

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Uganda Cranes head coach Sébastien Desabre has said his team is well prepared and ready for their opening Group B match against Zambia at the 2018 Total Africa Nations Championship (CHAN).

The two sides will clash at the Marrakech Stadium at 10.30pm Ugandan time in what promises to be a thriller.

"The attitude that the players showed during training is what we need on Sunday. We have an important match to start with and we must get good results," said the newly appointed French born coach after training on Friday.

Ahead of the tournament which kicks off, Desbare's team camped in Rabat where they played two international friendly matches.

They managed a 1-1 draw against Guinea before falling 1-0 to Congo Brazzaville.

Although majority of the Cranes players are trying to adjust to the extremely cold conditions in Morocco, the players morale is high.

"We have what it takes to start well against Zambia," said striker Muhammad Shaban who netted a brace when the junior team silenced hosts Zambia in the 2017 U-20 Cosafa tournament last December.

Namibia will be the second opponents for the Cranes on January 18th before winding up the group ties against Cote dÍvoire.

According to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Shs 19 billion (US$5,450,000) will be at stake. The winning team will pocket Shs 4.5 billion while the runner up takes Shs 2.5 billion.

The teams that finish in fourth position in each of the four groups will take Shs 630 million and quarter finalists will get Shs 1 billion.

The two teams that are knocked out at the semi final stage will each pocket Shs 1.4 billion.

Groups

Group A: Morocco, Mauritania, Guinea, Sudan

Group B: Cote dÍvoire, Uganda, Namibia, Zambia

Group C: Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Rwanda

Group D: Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville