NAIROBI, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Equatorial Guinea team, The Nzalang Nacional, arrived in Nairobi on Sunday ahead of their clash with Kenya’s Harambee Stars in a friendly match in Machakos on Monday.
The Guinea side was led by their key defender Federico Obama, who plays for Atletico Madrid.
Head coach Rodolfo Bodipo has brought along a strong 19-member team with majority of the players from the Spanish La Liga.
“We have come here with this young team to gain experience and test ourselves. Like Kenya we are also in the Africa Nations Cup qualifiers and we need to play more friendly matches,” Coach Bodipo said on Sunday in Nairobi.
Felipe Ovono, formerly with South African side Orlando Pirates, made the cut and is expected to be the man in goal. Ovono currently plies his trade in the Ethiopian league with Makelie.
“We will take this match seriously because we want to test our fitness and see that we give Kenya a good run for its money,” said Ovono in Nairobi.
Defender Jgor Engonga, who features for Spanish side UD Almeria, is also in the team.
It will be the second match for Kenya’s new coach Sebastian Migne, who replaced Belgian Paul Put. The French coach has started off his tenure with the Harambee Stars on a sour note on Friday when he saw his side humiliated 1-0 by lowly ranked Swaziland.
But on Sunday he remained buoyant that the Harambee Stars will rebound and beat the West African side on Monday.
“There is no excuse for our loss to Swaziland. But we must learn from our mistakes and also execute the few opportunities that come our way. It is a learning process and we will get back to winning ways,” said Migne.
The coach has called for home supporters to come and cheer on the Harambee Stars saying they lacked the noise in their match against Swaziland.
Kenya will play Ghana in the Africa Nations Cup qualifiers in Nairobi in Sept. Other members of the group are Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. Equatorial Guinea is placed in the same pool with Senegal, Sudan and Madagascar.
A total of 47 countries began the qualification campaign to join hosts Cameroon in the finals in 2019. There are 12 groups of four teams each with the winners in each qualifying along with the best three runners-up.
