CECAFA Women’s Challenge Cup
Uganda 2-0 Rwanda
FUFA Technical Centre
Wednesday, 01-06-2022
The Uganda Women’s Senior National team, Crested Cranes, got their 2022 CECAFA Women’s Challenge Cup campaign off to a winning start as they defeated Rwanda 2-0 at Njeru on Wednesday.
Fazila Ikwaput was the hero of the day as she netted once in either half to propel George Lutalo’s side to a deserved victory.
Rwanda got out of the blocks fast but could not find the opener as the Crested Cranes proved to be resilient.
After settling in, Uganda started asking questions of the Rwanda backline and Ikwaput capitalised on a goalkeeping mistake by Rwanda’s custodian Claudine Itangishaka to open the scoring, sloting into an empty net nine minutes to the break.
Uganda made a change at the start of the second half, introducing Sandra Nabweteme for Shirazi Natasha in attempt to add more fire-power and fresh legs upfront.
Nabweteme made instant impact, feeding Ikwaput who cut inside before drilling home to send the fans into wild celebrations.
Hasifah Nassuna, Nalugya and Margaret Kunihira all got close to scoring but in the end, two was good enough to see out the win.
Victory means Uganda finishes matchday 1 in second place on 3 points, same as Burundi who defeated Djibouti 3-0 in the early kick-off.
Action continues on Thursday with two fixtures in Group B. Tanzania plays South Sudan while Ethiopia will take on Zanzibar.
Uganda returns to action on Friday against Djibouti at 1pm.
