Ethiopia collected their first Group F win in their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign after beating Sierra Leone by a slender 1-0 margin at the Hawassa International Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Playing in front of their home crowd, Ethiopia certainly controlled the flow of play and dictated terms but their decision making in the final third was poor.
Consequently, despite having the lion’s share of possession, Ethiopia had very few decent scoring chances.
Nonetheless, the home side continued to push forward and were rewarded for their efforts with a penalty-kick in the 35th minute which Getaneh Kebede converted with confidence, 1-0.
Sierra Leone tried to fight back before the break, but entered the half time tunnel trailing by a goal.
Ethiopia came out to firing in the second half, but their shooting in front of goal was poor and they failed to add to their goal tally.
Luckily, for the home side Sierra Leone offered very little in terms of attack and suffered their first loss of the 2019 Afcon qualifying campaign.
The result, combined with Ghana’s 1-0 win over Kenya in Group F’s other game on Saturday, sees Ethiopia move off the bottom of the standings.
Ghana top Group F with six points from two matches while Ethiopia and Sierra Leone are second and third respectively with three points while Kenya are last with zero points.
Ethiopia (1) 1 (Kebede 35’ pen)
Sierra Leone (0) 0
African Football