The jubilant Uganda Cranes
HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I What a relief that Uganda clinched a historic place in the quarter-finals of the TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) PAMOJA 2024. They did this by drawing with South African Bafana Bafana 3-3 on Monday August 18th 2025 at Mandela National Stadium in Namboole.
By the grace of God, Uganda just survived a historical record that it exited CHAN 2024 in group stages, moreover as a co-host.
For the Cranes, who had never reached the CHAN knockouts in seven previous attempts, this represents a landmark achievement.
The advent
CHAN 2024, which kicked off 16 days ago in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, with co-hosts the Taifa Stars battling it with Burkina Faso, and winning 2-0, has been nothing but a thriller.
The tournament has so far produced 72 goals in 34 games so far played across the four groups. Out of Group A, there were 22 goal, while Group B produced 19 goals. Twenty two goals emerged out of Group C, while Group D produced only 19 goals.
South Africa’s Thabiso Kutumela, Morocco’s Oussama Lamlioui and Uganda’s Allan Okello lead the scoring charts with each having 9 goals.
Knock out journey
Six of the quarter finalists of CHAN 2024, which feature home-based players are known. The co-hosts Tanzania, Kenya and now Uganda has progressed to the next stage. Madagascar also progressed.
Morocco, winners of CHAN in 2018 as hosts and in 2020, secured the second qualification spot after edging out DR Congo, who are the 2009 and 2016 champions.
Come Saturday, August 23rd, the Uganda Cranes will tussle it out with the runners-up of Group D in Kampala, while Algeria will face off with the winners of the same group in Zanzibar city on the same day.
On the other hand, in the quarterfinals, Kenya will battle with Madagascar in Nairobi this Friday, August 22nd, while Morocco will tussle it out with Tanzania on the same day in Dar es Salaam. The results of these games will determine who will advance to the semifinals.
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