- Harambee Stars duo relish clash against ‘idols’ Senegal set for Tuesday in Turkey.
- The two sides will meet for the fourth time in an international friendly.
- The Lions of Teranga have defeated Harambee Stars in all three of their previous matches.
Harambee Stars midfielders Duke Abuya and Marvin Nabwire have offered their insights ahead of the international friendly match between Kenya and Senegal on Tuesday at the Mardan Stadium in Antalya, Turkey.
For Abuya, who captained the Harambee Stars in the 1-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea in the preceding friendly match on Friday, the fixture against the Lions of Teranga is critically important.
“We have a very crucial match ahead of us. It’s a friendly match, but for us, it’s like a building process for our team. Considering Senegal are the former AFCON champions, we are entering the match as underdogs.
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Harambee Stars duo relish clash against ‘idols’ Senegal
It means a lot to be on the same pitch with the likes of Sadio Mane, it gives us motivation that we can also compete at the highest level,” he said.
The Yanga SC midfielder emphasized the need to be clinical in front of goal to secure results admitting that they failed to properly utilize goalscoring chances in the last match
“We are looking forward to capitalizing on the chances we get. If you look at our last match and the type of goal we conceded, we would have emerged victorious.
For now, we are focusing on the next game and hope that whatever chance we create we are going to utilize, because we are creating a lot of chances.”
Abuya, who skippered the team for the first time in the match against Nzalang Nacional also embraced the inclusion of youngsters into the squad.
“We have young players, very promising players. Kibet and the left-back Otiende, who had a very good game and played the entire ninety minutes.
They should feel at home and know that it’s a process playing in the national team. You may start slow but pick up at the right time. I’m sure the coach has a reason why he selected them and a plan for them.”
Head coach Benny McCarthy chose five youngsters for the final FIFA window 2025 with inclusion of Baron Ochieng’, Aldrine Kibet, Kevin Otiende, Bryton Onyona and Lawrence Okoth.
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On his side, Nabwire, who partnered Abuya in central midfield on Friday, was also in agreement that the friendly match against Senegal will be a tough one.
“It’s not going to be an easy match because when you look at their squad, many of the players play professional football abroad and some of them are people we have been looking up to as our idols,” he said.
The Kenya Police FC midfielder took time to also reflect on their performance against the Nzalang Nacional.
“I think everyone had a good game, but we just failed to capitalize on our chances. That’s a mistake I know we have learned and are going to correct in our upcoming fixture.
We had a relatively new squad, but we played like a team that had already gelled, because for the better part of the match, we were in the Equatorial Guinea half,” he noted.
The match on Tuesday will be Kenya’s fourth meeting against Senegal. The Lions of Teranga have defeated Harambee Stars in all three of their previous matches.
The last encounter between the two teams was during the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations where Senegal won 3-0.
Senegal head into this encounter on the back of playing Brazil at the Emirates Stadium in London. The Lions of Teranga succumbed to a 2-0 defeat.