The Kenyan national team, Harambee Stars, head to tonight’s AFCON 2021 qualifiers clash with Togo’s Sparrow Hawks buoyed with a historic draw with Egypt.
Head coach Francis Kimanzi has stayed positive and hopes to avenge the calamity that befell the team in 2012 during their continental qualifiers where Harambee Stars was thumped 1-0 by the Sparrows and Kimanzi banned for four matches and slapped with a Ksh 0.8 million fine after he confronted an official.
Togo tossed Kenya out of the 2013 Afcon finals in South Africa with the win.
But today, they meet again with a team so solid it scared the Pharaohs in their own home turf and with a more refined Kimanzi.
The match kicks off at 7pm East Africa time at the Moi Sports Centre – Kasarani.
Kimanzi’s charges are looking forward to edging closer to the 2021 Afcon finals qualification and are keen to achieve that by defeating Togo tonight.
A win against the Sparrows will propel Stars to a pole position to make a historic return to the continental showpiece.
This give Togo tactician Claude Le Roy a headache as he is also fighting to return his team to win after his 1-0 shock loss at home to Comoros.
But he could, if possible, exploit the absence of Stars goalkeeper Patrick Matasi and winger Ayub Timbe to disrupt Kimanzi’s game plan.
Le Roy has, Khusoko understands, singled out Victor Wanyama (Tottenham Hotspurs), Ayub Timbe (China) and goal machine Michael Olunga (Kashiwa Reysol) of Kenya as his greatest threats.
