Uganda have it all to do to stop Ethiopia

Uganda captain Shakira Nyinagahirwa  controls the ball with Ethiopian midfielder Tigist Adame Belihu looking to pounce. PHOTO/ JOHN BATANUDDE

What you need to know:

Ethiopia have the advantage having come from 2-0 down late in the first leg played at St. Mary’s Stadium Kitende a fortnight ago to draw 2-2

Ugandan goal-scoring midfielder Hadijah Nandago revealed that their emphasis for the last two weeks has been on shooting.
Nandago leads a group of national team players in a bid to beat Ethiopia today in Addis Ababa to make it to the penultimate qualification round of the 2022 U-17 Women World Cup qualifiers. “We need goals and that is why the coaches have concentrated a lot on shooting,” Nandago said.

The math
Ethiopia have the advantage having come from 2-0 down late in the first leg played at St. Mary’s Stadium Kitende a fortnight ago to draw 2-2.
A goalless or 1-1 draw will guarantee Ethiopia a place in the next round on away goal rule. 
Uganda need to win or force a draw with a bigger score than 2-2 to progress. A 2-2 draw will definitely lead the game into shootouts. During the first leg, Ethiopia played the first half without any serious cutting edge.

Ethiopia approach
In the second half, however, they decided to exploit the physical stature of Ugandan keeper Sharon Kaidu by shooting aerial balls on sight of goal.
Uganda will therefore need to keep putting pressure on the ball to stop the Ethiopians from shooting from distance.
On their part, Uganda’s most potent goal threat is Nandago but she struggled to grow into the game. However, when she did midway through the second half, she bagged a quick brace.
The task for her today will be to come out of the blocks quickly.

Support cast
She can, however, do with some support from Uganda’s other forwards - especially the equally exposed Catherine Nagadya with whom they played the last U-17 qualifiers in 2020 that were wiped out by Covid-19 outbreak just before Uganda battled Cameroon for a place in the finals.

Because of the strength of her shot, Nagadya has been deployed as a central forward but she has always been comfortable operating on the wing.