‘We still have a chance’ – Mwendwa confident Kenya will qualify despite Comoros draw

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The federation reveals to Goal that Kenya are still on course to snatch a ticket for the Afcon finals despite three straight draws

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) President Nick Mwendwa is confident Kenya will make it to the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations finals despite three consecutive draws in the ongoing qualification campaign.

Harambee Stars are yet to pick maximum points from their last three fixtures only managing to secure draws – 1-1 against Egypt, 1-1 against Togo, and a similar scoreline against Comoros – in a match played last Wednesday at Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi.

With three matches left to the end of the qualification campaign, FKF boss Mwendwa has told Goal that Kenya still have a huge path to qualify for their second successive appearance in the Africa competition.

“Yes…we still have a chance,” Mwendwa told Goal before the team left for Comoros for the return leg. “I am confident, there is a path, even if we draw away in Comoros there is still a path because the other teams are also dropping points, so we are still in the game.

“The big question is Togo and Egypt, what do we do? Is it a guarantee we win the matches? It is not, we never said it is a done deal, so what do we do?

“We have to be ready to get something out of the two nations, it is either we win or at worst we get a draw, we must prepare well for the remaining matches and as FKF we are doing everything possible to make this team happy and make sure they give us the good results that we want as a country.”

Mwendwa is also happy to see the return of key players to the national team saying it a sign of good things to come for Kenya.

“David ‘Calabar’ Owino is back, he hasn’t played for two years. Now we saw him out there [against Comoros], Arnold Origi has not been there, our best team have not been put together for a while because of different reasons but now we do, we have them together.

“What it means is that we can now compete with the best teams in Africa, we have all our best players available, it shows Kenya is ready to fight and join the big league in the continent.”

Mwendwa continued: “So what I am saying, let us give this squad time for them now to show us what they have, you know we will be disappointed of course if it goes badly but when you are leading you have to show leadership and the leadership is we are pointing in the direction of good preparations - better than before.”

After the Comoros match, Harambee Stars, who took part in the last Afcon finals staged in Egypt but failed to get past the group stages, will have two more matches to play in the qualifiers - against Egypt at home and Togo away.

2020-11-14 10:00:04

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