Africa’s World Cup qualifiers top scorer Farouk Miya believes Uganda have a real chance in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The Cranes were drawn alongside Egypt, Ghana and Congo and they started the qualifiers well, collecting four points from their first two games despite not many giving them a chance. They drew with Ghana in Tamale before beating Congo in Kampala thanks to an Farouk Miya winning goal.
“We were the underdogs. But that does not mean we did not believe in our chance,” Miya told FIFA.com.
They currently sit second in group E, two points behind leaders Egypt, while Ghana sit third with only one point and Congo languish at the bottom of the group with 0 points.
Uganda will host the Pharaohs on August 31 in Kampala before travelling to Alexandria to face them at Borg El-Arab Stadium on September 5.
“As a team, we grew stronger when we beat Togo. They have already played at the World Cup and we gained in confidence when we advanced at their expense,” Miya said.
“Even when we were drawn into the same group as Egypt and Ghana, not to forget Congo, we still believed that we could go through to the World Cup.
“We have the support of the whole of Uganda and we so much want to go to Russia for our fans. Qualifying for the World Cup would be a tremendous achievement,” he added.
The 19-year-old was part of the Uganda squad who competed at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations last January, scoring his country’s only goal in the tournament, and he described playing there as a “dream come true.”
“That already was like a dream come true. It was a great feeling to be able to play there. We lost at the finals in Gabon against Ghana and Egypt, so having drawn with the Black Stars in the qualifiers shows that we are stronger now than we were then,” Farouk continued.
“There is no star player in our team. That makes our team so strong. It is the unity that binds us and moulds us into a team,” he concluded.
