The Mozzartbet Cup winners Kenya’s Nairobi United face Tanzanian Premier League side Azam FC in their third CAF Confederations Cup group stage tie tomorrow, Sunday 25 January, 2025.
The crunch tie, which promises to be a nailbiting East African club derby at the continental stage is set to be played at Kasarani Stadium starting at 4:00 PM.
The team held their final training session on Saturday with the team exuding confidence at putting up a nailbitting clash in their bid to snap their maiden win at the group stages.
Soon after the team’s training session, club patron Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja took an early morning stroll with Nairobi United FC team during which the Governor took time to motivate the team ahead of the game.
“We are building an institution at this team. We are proud of the progress so far and even tomorrow, we shall be behind you as you play against Azam,” Governor Sakaja said.
“I call on all Kenyans to turn up in large numbers at Kasarani stadium and support the team. Nairobi United are representing Kenya and I want to urge all football fans to throng Kasarani and cheer up our boys to victory,” Sakaja added.
Speaking during the team final media engagement, Nairobi United coach Salim Ali and midfielder Lesley Otieno exuded confidence that the team is motivated and in high spirits promising to go for the scalp of the Tanzanian side infront of home fans.
“We have had good results and the team is well prepared to go for our first win in the confederations cup. We are ready to represent the country and with the recent restructuring of the team, we are confident that we have what it takes to get the three points from tomorrow’s match,” Coach Salim said.
The tactician noted that the inclusion of new head coach Godfrey Oduor and inform striker Benson Omalla to the team have boosted the squad depth and the Naibois will be going for nothing short of a victory.
“The team has recently had very positive adjustments to the squad. We have coach Godfrey Oduor who is a CAF -A licence holder and who perfomed exeptionally well in the Sudanese league with Jasmus FC as well as KCB FC and the under 17 national team and his experience will be very helpful to our formation and how we approach the match,” Salim noted.
The team has in the recent bolstered the squad with the inclusions of Harambee Stars attacker Benson Omalla, who finished as top scorer in the 2023-2024 Kenyan Premier League season with 19 goals as well as two Ugandan imports Charles Moses Waibi and Christopher Kizza. The team has also secured the signatures of veteran Kepha Aswani and ex-Kariobangi Sharks defender Steve Biko Omollo.
On his part, Lesley Otieno said that his teammates are well prepared to play exciting football and secure a win against Azam.
“We are ready and I know Azam have experience in the continetal competitions but for us, we are confident to get the job done. It will be a midfield duel, we are goimg to play a lot of posessing football which tells that we cannot posses and fail to score,” Otieno said.
“We have top quality players. The likes of Benson Omalla who is a prolific goal scorer, I believe that tomorrow we are representing Kenya and we are determined to give the country the result that they desire whichnis an emphatic win,” Otieno added.
Ticketing for the match on Bigbrother ticketing ends today with the VIP tickets going at Ksh. 500 while regular tickets are selling at Ksh. 200
Tickets for the match are sold online at https://patatix.com/e/NaiboisVSAzamFC and tickets sales end on Saturday by midnight.
Organisers have announced that no tickets will be sold on the match day