Rwanda women’s national team coach Grace Nyinawumuntu, insists her ladies gave their all despite Rwanda’s shock elimination from the Paris 2024 Games at the hands of Uganda.
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Uganda advanced to the next round of the 2024 Olympic Games qualification after substitute Ikwaput Fazila came from the bench to snatch an extra time winner against Rwanda on Sunday, July 16, at Kigali Pele Stadium, and win the qualifier on a 4-3 aggregate win over two legs.
Nyinawumuntu admits that Uganda’s physical strength and experience made the difference against a tired Rwandan side in the extra time.
"The players gave their all, my plan was not to concede any goal and they (team) did it over 90 minutes of game. We struggled in the extra time because of the fatigue. The Ugandan team looked more physical than us,” she said.
"We are all aware of Uganda’s quality and experience, they have more than five elements playing professional football within their squad. So what we needed to do was to try to stop them but we failed in the decisive minutes of game.... That’s football.”
The former AS Kigali tactician insists the result could have been different in the penalty shootouts had her ladies not conceded the goal.
"I didn’t tell this to my players but, on my side, I wanted penalty shout-outs because I prepared the goalkeeper and the penalty takers for it, I was sure that we would win if we managed to get a draw here,” she said.
Uganda Women coach Khalifa Ayub Kayingi also admits that, prior to the qualifier, he underrated the Rwanda side whose resilience frustrated his team throughout the game.
"The Rwanda we played in these two games is different from the one I had known before. I have seen a very aggressive, resistant and compact team which I appreciated, I can tell them to keep it up. The only thing that helped us today is patience and sticking to our game,” said Kayingi.
The Crested Cranes will face Cameroon in the next round of the Olympic Games qualifiers.