The Ethiopian women Olympic team has a mountain to climb as they salvaged a draw against its Cameron counterpart at the Bahir Dar Stadium in their quest for Tokyo 2020.
The Ethiopian women’s Olympic team were without the prolific goal scorer Loza Abera who exited the team camp in Adama to finalize a move to the Malta first division Champions Birbakara FC, and her ex-teammate Senaf Wakuma was included in the starting 11 after having difficult few weeks after an injury she sustained in the team’s preparation and also surprisingly Seanit Bogale was also left on the bench by Selam Zeray.
Meanwhile, the “Indomitable Lionesses” who made the trip to Ethiopia 8 days ago were without most of the players who took part in the recent edition of FIFA women’s world cup held in France few month’s ago.
The Ethiopian’s who fielded an offensive team with Serkaddis Gutta, Senaf Wakuma and Medina Awel leading the front line, it was a bright start for the home side as they see a much greater share of the ball but created a couple of goal scoring chances only. With Medina Awol coming the closest to opening the score in the early minutes, but her effort was nearly saved by Cameron’s goalie Ndom Annette.
Ethiopia’s domination starts to fade away after the 30 minutes mark meanwhile Cameroon were growing into the game, especially in the last 15 minutes they were exploiting the napping Ethiopia’s players with there blistering fast transition football but Ethiopia’s Goalkeeper Abaynesh Irkelo was not easy to beat.
After the restart Ethiopia’s women Olympic team head coach Selam Zeray introduced Senait Bogale in place of the defender Nardos Getnet to boost the team’s offensive spark yet again, the second half marked a more competitive encounter. But it was the visitors who opened the scoring through Abam Michaela’s strike early in the second half.
Following lead Cameroon’s opted to sit very deep to defend their lead but in the 82nd minute, the Ethiopian Women’s premier league first division best player Senait Bogale rescued the Ethiopian Women’s Olympic team’s hope, enabling them to salvage a hard-fought draw in home soil.
On the 86th minute, the Lewina Yovoni was shown a strat red card for a clinical challenge.
Cameron who participated in the 2012 Olympic Games held in London are the favorites to go through when the two sides clash in Cameron for the return leg on Sunday.
