Ethiopia and Tanzania turn their focus to the AFCON qualifications

Tanzania and Ethiopia will square off in an entertaining Group H match on Wednesday afternoon at the Benjamin Mkapa National Stadium as the second round of Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers gets underway. It starts at 6:00 p.m. CAT.

Throughout 2024, the Taifa Stars have been mainly unreliable; their performance has just started to improve since May.

Tanzania has won all three of their recent games and enters their upcoming match on the strength of a 1-0 victory against Zambia in a CAF World Cup qualifying match that was played on June 11.

Prior to their triumph against Zambia, Tanzania had previously won 1-0 in an international friendly match against Sudan on May 19. This was followed by a scoreless draw with Tanzania on June 2.

Conversely, Ethiopia drew both of their most recent CAF World Cup qualifiers in June, against Guinea-Bissau (0-0) and Djibouti (1-1).

Ethiopia has struggled to produce positive results this year and has only managed one victory since the year 2024 began—a 2-1 triumph against Lesotho in a friendly match on March 24.

Hemed Suleiman, the acting head coach of Tanzania’s national team, has claimed that there are no issues or injuries facing the Taifa Stars heading into their 2025 AFCON qualification campaign.

“All players are in good condition and are adjusting to our training regimen well, according to our medical staff,” Suleiman stated.

Since some of our players have competed in past AFCON tournaments and others are aiming for their debut appearance, this is nothing new for us.

“I have faith that using our procedures, we can build a solid team. Since Thursday, we have been working out, and we are progressing steadily. Understanding the importance of this game, we encourage supporters to show up in big numbers to help the squad,” Sulaiman reaffirmed.

Tanzania and Ethiopia will play each other for the first time in Africa Cup of Nations qualifying, however they have already faced off three times since 2013.

On January 11, 2013, Ethiopia and Tanzania played their first international friendly at Addis Ababa Stadium. Walyas defeated the Taifa Stars 2-1.

During this time, the two countries also played in a few matches of the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations, with Ethiopia winning one match and sharing another.