‘Micho’ bemoans Cranes big blow
UGANDA’S RETURN ENDS AFTER TWO GAMES
PORT-GENTIL – Uganda coach Milutin Sredojevic admitted that the way his side were knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations with a last-gasp defeat to Egypt on Saturday was a hard blow.
“We tried our best, but unfortunately it was not enough,” said “Micho” after Abdallah El Said’s 89thminute strike, from a Mohamed Salah assist, gave Egypt a 1-0 win in the Group D encounter in Port-Gentil.
“This level of competition demands total focus of concentration on details that decide games.
“We couldn’t keep that concentration up to the last moment – when we were supposed to close the game out we allowed a counterattack and the experience and quality of Salah made the difference.”
The result left Uganda bottom of the group without a point after a previous 1-0 loss to Ghana, and their first Afcon appearance since 1978 ends at the group stage.
“We have come after 39 years and paid for the lesson in a hard way. If you lose in a convincing way you accept it, but in this way it is very hard to accept.
“We came here to play three Cup finals – the first we lost on a penalty and the second we lost in the last minute on the counter.”
Uganda play in their last game against Mali on Wednesday.
“Now we need to pick up the pieces and look forward in order to see who will play the last game – it is hard to say who will play in the last game, we have certain injuries like (goalkeeper Denis) Onyango. –