SEVERAL national football team, Taifa Stars players have positively reacted on their group C of the unveiled 2019 Africa Cup of the Nations (AFCON) draw held on Friday night in Egypt.
Tanzania has been packed in what is described as tricky group together with giants Senegal, Algeria and neighbours Kenya.
According to the fixture, Taifa Stars will begin their campaign by taking on Senegal on June 23rd before confronting Kenya on June 27th, while their last match in the group will be against Algeria on July 1st.
Taifa Stars had to wait until their last match in group L against Uganda which ended 3-0 to qualify for the second time in history in the continent’s biggest football competition, whose final will be held in Egypt.
The victory was a credit to the team’s Head Coach, Emmanuel Amunike who during his first media briefing after landing the lucrative job said his number one task was to sail with Taifa Stars into the AFCON finals using the available resources.
For many people, it was like a parable but now, the country’s flag is already flying high in Egypt ahead of the thrilling competition, which has drawn 24 nations from the continent.
Through social media interviews, Star’s goal poacher Thomas Ulimwengu, who plays professional football at JS Saoura in Algeria, said the group is fair for them and they just need to work hard to step into the quarter finals. “Each team apart from the hosts Egypt will be away from home meaning that we all have equal chances to progress into the next round,” Ulimwengu said.
He added that the hard part at this stage of the competition is that you only play a total of three matches for nine points hence there is no home or away system as it was the case during the concluded AFCON group stages.
“We have potential to do well only if we prepare well prior to the Egypt mission,” he said. On his part, another prolific Star’s player Simon Msuva said he is happy with the group because he wanted to meet with big teams to get experience and learn from them.
“I believe that with the current squad we have, definitely, we can do miracles in Egypt. We have been paired with great teams in Africa and a good chance for us to prove that we can dine on the same table with them,” Msuva said.
