Uganda Cranes played for close to 80 minutes with a man down following a straight red card to Ben Ocen to pick up a 1-1 draw with Cameroon. The Police FC Winger was adjudged to have elbowed his opponent.

From the resultant free-kick on 13 minutes, Cameroon took the lead with a headed goal by Captain Banga Bidjeme. However before that, Cranes had dominated the opening ten minutes in which Cameroon conceded three successive corner kicks but yielded nothing. Karim Watambala’s delivery of all the kicks put the Lions’ defense under pressure as they played for survival at time.

Uganda Cranes coach Johnathan McKinstry was never tempted to change his tactical formation even when his team played with a man less. However as the first half grew older, striker Joseph Ssemujju was introduced for Watambala.

The Lions were by this time in control of the game but the central defense partnership of Paul Mbowa and Mustafa Mujjuzi did all they could to avert any aerial danger.

The second half so no substitutions made until midway of this period when a double change was introduced with Vianne Ssekajjugo and Bobosi Byaruhanga coming in for Ojera Joackim and Captain Tonny Mawejje.

Ojera had ended the first half with a bandaged head following a clash of heads with his opponent. The stylish winger caused all sorts of problems for the Cameroonian backline as he also received cheers from the very few fans who attended the match.

Mujjuzi took over the skipper’s role following the departure of experienced Mawejje whose captaincy had earlier witnessed Milton Karisa and Ojera Walter combine with a series of passes between the pair to hand Uganda the equalizer in the 70th minute.

Birthday boy Shaban Muhammad was introduced with 10 minutes to go for goal scorer Karisa.