Ethiopia collected their first Group F win in their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign after beating Sierra Leone by a slender 1-0 margin at the Hawassa International Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Playing in front of their home crowd, Ethiopia certainly controlled the flow of play and dictated terms but their decision making in the final third was poor.
Consequently, despite having the lion’s share of possession, Ethiopia had very few decent scoring chances.
Nonetheless, the home side continued to push forward and were rewarded for their efforts with a penalty-kick in the 35th minute which Getaneh Kebede converted with confidence, 1-0.
Sierra Leone tried to fight back before the break, but entered the half time tunnel trailing by a goal.
Ethiopia came out to firing in the second half, but their shooting in front of goal was poor and they failed to add to their goal tally.
Luckily, for the home side Sierra Leone offered very little in terms of attack and suffered their first loss of the 2019 Afcon qualifying campaign.
The result is good news to Kenya’s Harambee stars who beat Ghana 1-0, yesterday, and now move to second spot. All the 4 teams are now tied at 3 points and are separated by goal difference. Ghana leads having a goal difference of +4, Kenya lies second with a difference of 0 same as Sierra Leone. Ethiopia are last with -4. Kenya plays Ethiopia in the third round, away, on October 10, 2018
Ethiopia (1) 1 (Kebede 35’ pen)
Sierra Leone (0) 0