Vipers Sports Club’s 25-man contingent arrived home safely after the Total CAF Confederation Cup playoff return leg encounter away in Sfax, with lessons learned this morning, against four-time competition winners Club Sportiff Sfaxien at the Tareb Mhiri Stadium.
The Uganda Premier League (UPL) champions fell short of qualifying for the group stages after going down 3-0 on Sunday night. The first leg ended 0-0 and thus Sfaxien going through 3-0 on aggregate.
The game against the Tunisian giants was an explosive match that saw Alaeddine Marzouki, Kingsley Sokari and Fabrice Koukou aka Manucho score for the hosts in-front of a passionate home crowd.
Led by Fufa executive member representing Kitara Region Rogers Byamukama, the team returned in similar fashion as they departed – in two batches.
The first group comprising of 18 people touched down Entebbe at 4:20am via Istanbul aboard Turkish Airlines while the other seven flew in aboard Fly Emirates via Dubai reached at 1:45pm.
Despite the elimination, Vipers haven’t dropped their heads as the youthful team gained much in terms of exposure and vital experience with several lessons learned at such competitions after flexing muscles with African perennial heavyweights in El Merreikh of Sudan, CS Constantine from Algeria plus CS Sfaxien aka “The Juventus of the Arabs” of Tunisia.
However, there is no room for rest as the players resume training tomorrow in preparation for two first round remaining StarTimes UPL fixtures against URA FC (away) at Mandela National Stadium, Namboole on Friday and Mbarara City at home on Sunday respectively.
The Venoms desperately require maximum points in both matches as they aim to catch up with runaway log leaders KCCA FC who at 36 points – a whopping six points ahead of the Venoms.
A slip at this time will be a setback in the title pursuit.