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Uganda to play Togo in 2018 FIFA World Cup 2nd round qualifying

Xinhua, July 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Uganda Cranes have been drawn to play Togo in the second round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Draws for the world Cup were made on Saturday at the Konstantin Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. Uganda Cranes were spared the pain and expenses of going through the preliminary stage because of their fair world ranking.

Cameroon international Samuel Eto'o and Rinat Dasaev were the people on stage to make the draw for African countries.

"We lost twice to Togo last year in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. But we are happy that we shall face them again because we know about them," Uganda Cranes coach Milutin 'Micho' Sredojevic told Xinhua on Saturday evening.

Togo will host Uganda first in Lome in November before the return leg in Kampala. But before the second round, the lowest ranked 26 teams that were paired against each other will face off in the first round in October.

Before the Council for East and Central African Football Associations (Cecafa) Uganda jump into the fray, the others will be in action with Somalia facing Niger, while South Sudan take on Mauritania and Djibouti battle Swaziland. Kenya will also take on Mauritius, Seychelles face Burundi and Eritrea have to tussle it out against Botswana.

The 13 winners from the first round and the 27 other countries will later compete in two-leg ties with winners progressing to a group stage. African champions Cote d'Ivoire will wait to face the winner between Liberia and Guinea Bissau in the second round.

Five nations are expected to qualify from the African continent for the 2018 FIFA World Cup to take place in Russia. Germany is the defending champion. Endi