AFCON 2019: It is David against Goliath as Uganda plays DRC
Group A
Uganda Vs DRC at 5pm(EST)
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Cairo International Stadium on Saturday
It remains to be seen whether history will repeat itself for David to beat Goliath as Uganda takes on Democratic Republic of Congo in their opening game in this year's African Nations Cup.
In the Bible story, termed as the underdog, David killed a well prepared and armed to teeth Goliath with just one stone.
Coming into the game, Uganda looks the underdogs with history showing that the East African side have lost 14 out of the 19 games they have played at the Afcon finals.
The last three wins came 41 years ago during the 1978 edition in which they lost in finals to Ghana.
On the other side, DRC are unbeaten in the last nine group games at the Afcon finals where they are now participating for the 19th time.
In international friendlies are to go by, Uganda is better heading into the game, having drawn against Turkmenistan before upsetting Ivory Cost 1-0.
DRC on the other side failed to beat both Kenya and Burkina Faso in the two friendlies they played prior to flying to Egypt.
Felix Tshisekedi’s boys had to wait for the last day to beat Liberia by a goal to nil to qualify for the continent’s most prestigious tournament following a difficult campaign but on the other side, Uganda almost had smooth path to the Afcon finals.
Men to watch
Uganda will be relying on the heroics of Africa’s number one stopper, Denis Onyango to do it for them at the Cairo International Stadium on Saturday evening.
For DRC will rely greatly on Cedric Bakambu, Tresor Mputu and Yannick Bolasie.
Reaction
Uganda Cranes captain Denis Onyango thinks a win against their neighbours will be a good boost to the efforts to qualify for the next round.
“The first game in the tournament always gives you the leeway to performing well. We shall aim for maximum points in the games against DRC, “Onyango said during the pre-match press conference.
Uganda and Africa’s number one shotstopper says a positive result will be a big boast to the team’s effort to ensure they get out of the tough group A, having seen underdogs Zimbabwe go down fighting against hosts Egypt.
There were concerns over the team’s ability to play under the host conditions in Egypt but Cranes coach, Sebastien Desabre thinks otherwise.
The French international believes his boys had enough time to get used to the hot conditions during their training camp in the United Arab Emirates where they spent three weeks before flying to Egypt.
“We held a good training camp in Abu Dhabi for acclimatization and also played two internal friendlies. That is enough preparation for us,”Desabre said.
He added that the morale in the camp is high but emphasized teamwork as the only magic bullets that will bring down DR Congo.
For DRC captain Youssouf Mulumbu, his teammates will need t correct a few mistakes and they will be ready to go against Uganda.
‘‘If we correct the little things we lacked, we can go to the final or we can win. I’m very confident because we went through so much during the qualifiers and it was a good thing for us because it made us stronger,”Mulumbu said.
Both teams have never met each other in the Afcon finals and Saturday’s game is going to be their first.
