Harambee Starlets on Saturday qualified for the final of the Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (Cecafa) Women’s championship after a 5-0 thrashing of Burundi in the semi-final at the Chamazi stadium in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
A brace from on-form Jentrix Shikwanga and a goal each from Mwanahalima Adam, Dorcus Shikobe and Corazone Aquino gave Starlets the emphatic win and they will now face the winner of clash pitting champions Tanzania and Uganda in Monday’s final.
Harambee Starlets head coach David Ouma said the team has done tremendously well with this being their eleventh match played in the last two months and is happy that the girls continue to show determination as they bid to win their maiden Cecafa title.
“Burundi is a good team and playing against them has helped us know how to quickly find solutions to our errors while playing, they put up a good fight in the first half, but we were the better side,” said Ouma.
Captain Shikobe opened the scoring session through a header achieved from a sharp corner in a mostly uneventful first half of the match.
Midfielder Adam doubled Starlets’ advantage with her fourth goal of the competition in the 56th minute.
The 17-year-old Shikangwa, who has been impressive in this competition, scored two goals in four minutes to move to top of the scoring charts with 10 goals.
Aquino put the icing on the cake with the fifth goal in the 78th minute as Burundi were put to the sword.
The result means Kenya’s record against Burundi remains perfect having beaten them 4-0 in 2016 at Jinja, Uganda.
“I attribute our loss mostly to the lack of experience. Kenya are always in training for different competitions and also most of my key players were nursing injuries from the previous matches hence the poor performance,” said Belyse Ininahhazwe, Burundi’s assistant coach.