Just like the opening match, the second match of the Africa Cup will also be played in the Cairo Stadium. On Saturday afternoon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda meet in the Egyptian capital.
DR Congo:
The Democratic Republic of Congo, or DR Congo for short, twice won the Africa Cup in the past. In 1968 and in 1974 Les Léopards crowned Best of Africa and four years ago Congo reached the semifinals. In that semi-final, later tournament winner Ivory Coast proved too strong for DR Congo, which in the consolation final took even better penalties than Equatorial Guinea. Yet DR Congo is no more than an outsider during this Africa Cup. On the other hand, national coach Florent Ibengé has a selection at his disposal with which he can sometimes surprise at this tournament. In addition, the country has a national coach with Ibengé who has been at the helm for five years. Incidentally, Ibengé has been combining his work as a national coach since 2014 with his work as a trainer at AS Vita Club, the second club of Congolese football on paper.
A pool with Egypt, Uganda and Zimbabwe should normally survive the Democratic Republic of Congo. On paper, DR Congo is the favorite to end up behind Egypt in this group. However, the reality is that the Congolese were in the group during the qualification at Zimbabwe and that country ended up above DR Congo. In fact, DR Congo only qualified for the final qualifying match by winning 1-0 against Liberia in a mutual match. If they think that they can get through this group easily with the Democratic Republic of Congo, then they might come home from a cold fair.
But on paper Ibengé has a reasonable selection at its disposal. Strikingly enough, only three players play in their own country at DR Congo and that also demonstrates the strength of this Congo: Les Léopards have many players who earn their living in European competitions. Guys like Christian Luyindama (Galatasary) and Arthur Masuaku (West Ham United) make enough minutes at their clubs and in an attacking sense, Yannick Bolasie (active on rental base at Anderlecht last year) and Cédric Bakambu (Beijing Guoan, China) are also two players who being able to make a difference during such a tournament.
Uganda:
Last Saturday, Uganda won 0-1 in a friendly game against Ivory Coast, which won the African Cup in 2015. It shows that we should not underestimate Uganda in the coming weeks, although there is a good chance that the Ugandans may return home after the group phase. The advantage that East Africans have is that the four best numbers three also qualify for the knockout phase and on paper Uganda is no less than Zimbabwe. Moreover, Uganda had a good qualification – it scored thirteen points in six games. But in Uganda they will undoubtedly also regularly remember the previous editions of the Africa Cup. In 2015, Uganda took just one point and in the tournaments held between 1980 and 2015, the East African country was not even in the party.
Whereas the group mates of Uganda all have a few famous and famous players in European club football, in Uganda they have to get it mainly from the collective. The Cranes will also mainly defend in Egypt and hope for goals from the counter, because that is where the strength of this team lies. For example, in the first five qualifiers, the Ugandans kept their goal clean. In the last qualifying match with Tanzania (3-0), Uganda only lost a lot, but the country had already qualified. For national coach Sébastien Desabre only the result counts in Egypt and you can’t blame him – the fact that Emmanuel Okwi (playing at Simba S.C in Tanzania) is seen as the absolute star of Uganda says enough. With Denis Onyango, Uganda has the best goalie in Africa, according to experts, although you may wonder whether the 34-year-old closing post is better than an André Onana, for example.
