TWO TEAMS Tanzania And Hosts Ethiopia Have Qualified For The Semi-Final Stage At The Ongoing Totalenergies U-17 Africa Cup Of Nations (AFCON) CECAFA Qualifiers.
Tanzania Secured Their Place After Stopping Uganda 2-1 In A Group B Match Played At The Dire Dawa Stadium On Friday Night.
Fahad Ismail Gave Uganda The Lead From The Spot After 15 Minutes. But Didmas Athanasi Leveled For Tanzania Eleven Minutes Later. Soann Shabani Added A Second Half Goal To Ensure Tanzania Collected Maximum Points.
The Win Sent Tanzania To Nine Points Before They Face Burundi In The Last Group Match, While Uganda Remained Second With Six Points. In Another Group B Match Burundi Recorded Their First Win Seeing Off Djibouti 1-0. Sharif Irabaruta Scored The Lone Goal. The Two Teams Were Each Reduced To 10-Men.
In Addis Ababa At The Abebe Bikila Stadium, Ethiopia Failed To Hold To Their 3-1 Lead, To Draw 3-3 Against A Determined Somalia Side. Somalia Took The Lead Through Nur Andirashid Omar After 36 Minutes To Silence The Home Fans. But Dawit Kassaw Leveled Matters With A Well Time Header After 40 Minutes.
The Home Side Returned A Very Hungry Side Before They Got A Penalty After 52 Minutes. Dawit Kassaw Yirdaw Stepped And Converted To Take His Tally To Six Goals In The Tournament.
Somalia Did Not Loose Hope And Continued To Attack In Numbers With Substitute Mohamud Osman Holding The Midfield Well. Abenezer Alemayehu Netted Ethiopia’s Third Goal After 85 Minutes, But Somalia Pulled One Back Two Minutes Later Through Abdirashid Omar.
In The Second Minute Of Added Time Somalia’s Skipper Anas Mohammed Leveled Matters To Ensure They Collected A Third Staright Draw In The Tournament. Ethiopia’s Head Coach Benjamin Ziemer Admitted That His Team Had Lost Control Of The Game.” These Are Young Boys And It’s A Learning Curve. We Now Have A Few Days Before We Play Kenya,” Added Ziemer.
In An Earlier Group A Match Kenya Recovered From A Goal Down To Stop Rwanda 2-1. Olivier Nshimiyimana Gave Rwanda The Lead After 37 Minutes, But Two Second Half Goals By Nicholas Ochola And Trevor Nasasiro Were Enough To Hand Kenya Their First Win.
Action Continues On Monday With Two Matches In Addis Ababa And Two Matches In Dire Dawa. The Winner, Runner-Up And Third Placed Teams Will Represent CECAFA At The AFCON U-17 2026.
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