By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (January 22^nd 2023)

Group B

Former Chipolopolo coach ‘ The Serbian Wolf’ Milutin Sredojević (Micho) returned to coach Uganda for the second time. In 15 matches Uganda had never won a match at a previous CHAN (African Nations Championship). That changed in Algeria’s CHAN. They began with a 0-0 draw against the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sénégal beat la Côte d’Ivoire 1-0 – Moussa Ndiaye scored the only goal in the 78^th minute to top Group B after the first round of matches on January 14^th in Annaba’s May 19^th 1956 Stadium.[1]

Four days later the Democratic Republic of Congo held la Côte d’Ivoire 0-0 before Micho’s Uganda broke their CHAN duck with a 1-0 triumph over Sénégal – Milton Karisa netted after 33 minutes. Table-topping Uganda will face the Ivorians at the Nelson Mandela Stadium tonight while Sénégal face the 0-0 specialist DR Congo in Annaba in the final phase of Group B matches.

Validating the Document

Micho outlined his approach to the tournament. “Before starting the competition we have talked to ourselves,” he said. “We are having three cup finals, and now we are having in front of us the third cup final … whatever was good to keep up and upgrade it.

 “Whatever was wrong we need to correct and we are team that has huge space to improve and room to develop and this is what we are working on.” Uganda has had its best CHAN to date, but they want more. That means Micho won’t be looking past the Ivorians. He seeks to put the stamp on the document of the first two matches, as without it, he says, the document is not valid.

[1] The Stadium is named after a significant event in Algeria’s independence struggle. On that day in 1956 Algerian students postponed their studies to take up arms for the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN – the National Liberation Front) in Algeria’s war against French colonialism. This war had a football context too – the famed FLN Team, which will be detailed in other articles.