MATCH REPORT| Uganda 2-0 Mauritania: Cranes Soar Past Maghreb Giants

Africa Cup of  Nations qualifier

Second round, first leg

Uganda 2-0 Mauritania

Uganda beat Mauritania 2-0 in a 2015 Africa Cup second round, first leg qualifier at the National Stadium Namboole in Kampala Saturday evening.

Goals from Brian Majwega and Geoffrey Massa gave The Cranes a crucial first leg victory at home to take into the return leg in Nouakchott to be played during the weekend of August 2.

Kampala City Council winger Majwega midfielder gave Cranes the lead a minute after coming on at the restart of the second half capitalizing on a mistake by Mauritania’s defender Fall Yakoub who failed to cear Dennis Iguma’s hard shot. The ball bounced in the box and Majwega made no mistake scoring in the 47th minute.

Later Umony, who is making a return to the national team after over two years, made a solo run, but his shot was parried away for a corner.

The next chance for the dominating home side fell to Moses Oloya who failed to connect the ball past the Mauritania goalkeeper Brahim Souleimane.

Massa neatly received a pass from Majwega and cleverly finished with a well taken shot to make it 2-0 after 68 minutes.

Although the visitors did not really threaten the Cranes, Khalil Moulaye Ahmed showed flashes of brilliance in the game. The Mauritania team soon brough the fresh legs of Sanba El vrulauy and Samb Ahmed, but they failed to change the flow of the game.

The Cranes had struggled to put up a convincing performance lately; their last friendlies against Seychelles (1-0) and Malawi (0-0), and the last qualifier, a 1-0 win over Madagascar all having little to inspire as they struggled to beat a rather defensive Mauritanian team.

Micho is started with Dennis Onyango in goal, Denis Guma, skipper Andy Mwesigwa, Isaac Isinde, and Godfrey Walusimbi as the back four.

Geoffrey ‘Baba’ Kizito, Moses Oloya and Farouq Miya marshaled the middle while Kizito Luwagga, Brian Umony and Geoffrey Massa completed a three-man attack.

After a goalless first half with the Cranes dominating proceedings,  Micho introduced scorer Majwega at halftime for Luwagga while Brian Umony who had five shots but only one on target for the 70 minutes he spent on the pitch was later withdrawn for Emma Okwi.

Cranes skipper Andy Mwesigwa was satisified with his teammates’ performance and emphasized they had nothing to worry about when they make the trip North for the decisive second leg.

“A win is a win. Am so satisified with what we displayed as a team in the 90 minutes,” the FC Ordabasy defender said in the post match press conference.

“The most important thing here was winning the game,” said Mwesigwa, who made a second half appearance in the friendly against Malawi but put in a full length game occasionally rushing forward to increase Uganda’s lead, adding, “The fact that we did not score abit more goals is one we should get over.

“We know that we need to score goals and together with the coach and our strikers, we are working on it.

If Uganda coach Micho Sredojevic draw or lose by a margin of one goal in the return leg, they will join Group E of qualification, where four-time African champions Ghana, Togo and Guinea lay in wait.