ADDIS ABABA – Following a 1-1 tie with Rwanda in the second leg of the African Championship, commonly called CHAN Cup, qualifiers held at Kigali on Sunday, the Ethiopian national football side failed to qualify for the CHAN finals with a 2-1 aggregate result.
In the first leg that was held at Mekele stadium the national side suffered a 1-0 defeat by the visiting side Rwanda. The winners Rwanda got berth at the CHAN Cup finals that will be staged in Cameroon in 2020.
The record of national team head coach Abrham Mebratu in this qualification series has been abysmal low. He failed to make the African Nations Cup and World Cup qualifiers a success story.
In his interview ahead of the second leg in Rwanda, he said he had the confidence to reverse the first 1-0 deficit but to no avail.
Even in the friendly match against Uganda at Bahir Dar stadium the coach was not successful to get victory. Rather the Ugandan side had a 1-0 win over the national side with little difficulty.
By then the national football fans lost hope in their return match against Rwanda. Conceding defeat on home ground was rarely seen in the past but this time it looks almost normal. As one man well put it, defeat at home is ‘a new normal.’
The national side reached in this stage beating Lesotho with away goal rule. In the first leg of the preliminary rounds Ethiopia had a goalless tie against Lesotho in Bahir Dar and in the return leg the national team managed to get a 1-1 draw. The away goal advantage helped the national side to reach this stage. That kind of advantage was not repeated this time.
His chance of qualifying to CHAN Cup finals was slim even before he travelled to Kigali. As expected the coach returned with a disappointing result.
The Ethiopian Herald October 22, 2019
BY SOLOMON BEKELE
