Pre-Match Briefing: Vipers SC v Busoga United

STARTIMES UGANDA PREMIER LEAGUE

Match: Vipers SC v Busoga United
Date: March 16th, 2022
Time: 2pm | Live On TV
Venue: St Mary’s Stadium, Kitende

Vipers SC will seek an immediate response to their recent away loss to bottom side Tooro United when they host Busoga United at St Mary’s Stadium on Wednesday in the StarTimes Uganda Premier League.

Busoga United are no different from Tooro United as they too are fighting for the lives in the league. The visitors lie 11th on 21 points, three off the bottom three, after a recent renaissance.

That should be motivation enough for Coach Roberto Oliviera’s team to play their A-game in a bid to open up four-points at the top of the table.

The Venoms have 43 points from 20 games having scored a league-high 43 goals that has seen forwards Cesar Manzoki and Yunus Sentamu go pound-for-pound in the race to finish as top scorer.

Ahead of this tie, the Venoms assistant coach Marcelo Cardoso has rallied his team to come mentally set for this crucial fixture and confident to amend previous mistakes.

“Despite the previous result, we are very confident for tomorrow. We are playing a league and we are running leader in the competition” remarked Cardoso.

“We have alot of confidence in our players and they’re responding very well these last days and preparing for the match tomorrow. You will see a better, hungry and aggressive team.”

When Busoga United visits St Mary’s Stadium tomorrow, it will mark the 11th time both teams are meeting in their six year history and looking at the previous fixtures, the Venoms are ahead having won 7 times, drawn on 2 occasions and lost just once scoring 21 goals against 8 in the previous 10 league encounters.

Head-To-Head:

Meetings: 10

Vipers wins: 7

Draws: 2

Losses: 1

Goals for: 21

Against: 8

Points: 23

The first ever meeting between the two football clubs, occurred on October 18th, 2016 at Nakivubo War ll Memorial Stadium ending in a 1-0 victory for Vipers courtesy of Tony Odur’s lone strike.

Busoga United’s only triumph over Vipers came during their debut season 2016/17 in the second round 1-0 win played on March 31st, 2017 at Kakindu Stadium and it was very crucial in a sense that it sustained their stay in the top flight league as a loss would have instead contributed to their relegation to the big league.

Team News:

Second goalkeeper Denis Kiggundu is back after nursing a knee injury.

Youngster Umaru Kyebatala is still ruled out as he recovers from a knee injury and continues with his rehabilitation process.