Vihiga eye revenge against Ethiopians in Cecafa final

Kenya's Vihiga Queens, whose club motto is "We are Legacy makers", are confident of becoming the first club to ever qualify for the inaugural CAF Women's Champions League when they face Ethiopia's Commercial Bank in the final of the Council for East and Central Africa Football Association (Cecafa) qualifiers on Thursday.

The winner of the final will represent the region in the inaugural CAF Women's Champions League set for Cairo, Egypt later in the year.

In a press conference held at the Nyayo Stadium Wednseday, Vihiga Queens assistant coach Boniface Nyamunyamu told Nation Sport that the team has been patiently waiting to meet the Ethiopians again to avenge their 4-2 loss in the opening game of the tournament.

"We know how tough the Ethiopians are, but based on how we played the other matches, we are sure that they will not be that big of a challenge as they were last time. We have trained on how to quickly close in on any lapses we are likely to experience with them and we don't intend to let them intimidate us on our home soil," he said.

Nyamunyamu, who had earlier expressed that the Ethiopian side bullied his midfielders and attackers hostage in their first match, said that their opponents will be in for a shock, if they plan on using the same tricks they displayed last time.

"We intentionally put Engesha, Shikangwa and Wanyonyi to freely play all over the pitch in all our previous matches, but now they will need to tighten their recovery and attacking power in the final because those are the areas we ignored and ended up losing. Otherwise the team remains intact and since we don't have any injuries, we are hoping for nothing less of an entertaining match and a win," he added.

On the other hand, CBE's coach Heye Gizaw says that despite most of his players getting multiple injuries in their semifinal match against Lady Doves, he is hopeful that they will still deliver and end the tournament on a high.

"We were a bit worried that our injuries might slow us down but we have come up with tactics and changed our strategy to effectively work around one of the best teams in the tournament. Our hope is that the players' mindset and focus remains the same regardless of the pain challenge and we can nurse our wounds after we qualify for the women's champions’ league," he said.

Both coaches agreed that whatever the outcome, the regional competition has been significant in gauging the level of women's football and has opened up the conversation on the importance of having such competitions as often as possible to give the players both exposure and experience.

Ethiopia's Loza Geinore is currently the tournament's top scorer with 13 goals, while Maureen Achieng is Kenya's top scorer with seven goals.

In the Golden glove contest, Uganda's Daphine Nyayenga is most likely to scoop the award having conceded just one goal against CBE in the semifinal.

Fifa Secretary General Fatma Samoura, who landed in Kenya on Wednesday afternoon, is expected to grace the final match as the guest of honor as she proceeds with her Continental tour to South Sudan later in the week.

She will check on federations’ progress and also gauge the level of women's football in Africa. She will be accompanied by FIFA's current chief of Women's Football officer, Sarai Bareman.

Vihiga Queens eased into the final after they outclassed Simba Queens of Tanzania 2-1 in the semifinal on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, CBE beat Uganda’s Lady Doves 5-4 in post-match penalties in the other semi after the sides had settled for a 1-1 draw after normal and extra time.

Lady Doves will meet Simba Queens in the third place playoffs, before the much anticipated final.