Africa-Press – Uganda. Soufiane Rahimi scored twice for African Nations Championship title-holders Morocco as they came from behind to trounce Uganda 5-2 in Douala Tuesday and reach the quarter-finals.
The defending champions were joined in the knockout stage by Rwanda, who trailed Togo twice before Jacques Tuyisenge and Ernest Sugira scored within six minutes to create a 3-2 victory in Limbe.
Morocco, who hope to become the first back-to-back winners of the competition for home-based players, topped Group C with seven points, Rwanda had five, Togo three and Uganda one.
In the quarter-finals, Morocco play the Group D runners-up and Rwanda the Group D winners, and their rivals will be known Wednesday after Guinea face Tanzania and Zambia meet out-of-contention Namibia.
Record two-time champions the Democratic Republic of Congo confront host nation Cameroon and Mali tackle Congo Brazzaville in the other last-eight pairings.
One Nations Championship record was equalled and another two broken as Morocco flexed their muscles to overwhelm Uganda at Stade Reunification in the Cameroon economic capital.
Morocco became only the second nation after Tunisia in 2016, against Niger, to score five goals in a match at the tournament.
The five goals lifted the overall Moroccan total to 33 from 16 matches, bettering the 31 of DR Congo.
And, as if being hammered and eliminated was not bad enough, Uganda have conceded 24 goals during five appearances in the Nations Championship, more than any other country.
A night that ended so badly for the Ugandans began promisingly with an Ibrahim Orit goal on 25 minutes not only giving them the lead, but also lifting them to second in the table, ahead of Morocco.
That situation remained until the fourth minute of stoppage time at the end of the first half when Morocco captain Ayoub el Kaabi converted a penalty awarded when Ugandan Mustafa Mujuzi handled.
Rahimi stole the second-half show, scoring either side of a goal from Hamza el Moussaoui, to give the north Africans a 4-1 lead.
The goal deluge continued in the closing minutes as Saidi Kyeyune pulled one back for Uganda, whose goalkeeper, Charles Lukwago, then turned an Abdelilah Hafidi shot into his own net.
In a Limbe thriller, Yendoutie Nano gave the Togolese a lead that was cancelled by Olivier Niyonzima in the final minute of the first half.
Bilal Akoro put Togo, the only nation among the 16 in Cameroon competing at the Nations Championship for the first time, ahead a second time before Rwanda struck twice to finish runners-up.
Sports Journalist Elvis Ssenono compiled the player ratings during the match.
Charles Lukwago: 6.5
He conceded five times but was still Cranes’ best player on the day by saving the team from further embarrassment .Denis Iguma: 2.0Easily his worst game in a Cranes shirt. Needlessly gave away possession several times and at fault for two of the five goals conceded.Aziz Kayondo: 2.5Unable to stop the rampant Moroccans who mostly attacked via his flank leaving with him little chance of going forward.Mustafa Mujuzi: 2.5 A far cry from his assured performance in the first game against Rwanda. Conceded a penalty that led to the equaliser and often out of position thereafter.Halid Lwaliwa: 4.5Good individual display but failed to coordinate the defence and offers no commanding presence as captain.Shafik Kagimu: 4.0Exposed defensively by the more technical Moroccans but always available to initiate many of the team’s attacks.Bright Anukani: 3.0Most notable contribution was his freekick in the build up to the first goal on 25 minutes. Lacked dynamism and rarely got onto the ball.Saidi Kyeyune: 6.0Another fine goal scored but struggled to find the balance between attack and defence.Viane Ssekajugo: 3.0Rarely contributed going forward spending the majority of his hour on the pitch helping out Kayondo defensively.Ibrahim Orit: 5.0 Did plenty of good work and scored a beauty to give Uganda hope in the first half.Brian Aheebwa: 4.0Set up the opening goal with a nice lay-off. Largely ineffective after being starved of quality service.
Substitutes
Muhammad Shaban: 3.0A willing runner but suffered the same fate like his predecessor Aheebwa.Joackim Ojera 3.0No improvement shown with his final ball after coming on.Coach Johnny MckinstryWent for a wrong approach against opponents who were more comfortable on the ball. His team was punished for playing out from the back. (2/10)
