This archive report was first published on 26 September 2019.
Kenya's Junior Stars made a resounding start to their Cecafa U-20 Championship campaign, thrashing Ethiopia 4-0 at the Njeru Technical Center in Jinja on Thursday afternoon.
The Junior Stars broke the deadlock just before halftime through Steve Otieno, before Austine Odhiambo doubled the lead in the 68th minute. Second-half substitutes John Njuguna and Benson Omala sealed the win with goals in the 75th and 84th minutes respectively.
Junior Stars coach Stanley Okumbi expressed his satisfaction with the team's performance, saying, “We are happy that we have finished on a high in the group stage. We respect every team in the tournament and we will be ready for the quarterfinal on Sunday.”
Assistant coach Hesborn Nyabinge exuded confidence ahead of the quarterfinal, stating, “Everything has gone as we planned. We have a good team this time and we are confident it will go all the way to the final. The quality in the team is fantastic and we are ready to face any team in the tournament.”
Kenya opened their campaign with a 5-0 win over Zanzibar, before drawing 2-2 with Tanzania in their second match. The results mean that Kenya and Tanzania finish the group stage tied on seven points and have the same goal difference of +9. However, Kenya accumulated more yellow cards (5), while Tanzania has three, resulting in Tanzania finishing top of the group and Kenya second.
Kenya will now face Burundi, who finished third in Group C in Njeru, while Tanzania will face hosts Uganda - who finished third in Group A in Gulu - in the quarterfinals set to be played on Sunday.
