Kenya Under-23 team, Emerging Stars sailed to the second round of Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers following their 3-1 win against Mauritius at Anjalay Stadium.
Stars qualified to the second round on an 8-1 aggregate courtesy of a 5-0 home win and will face the winner between Seychelles and Sudan in March next year.
The winner between the sides will be determined tomorrow evening in Khartoum, where the hosts will need at least a goal-less draw or a win to qualify after picking a valuable 1-1 draw in Seychelles last week.
Prior to kick off, head coach Francis Kimanzi rung five changes to the squad that played in the first leg in Nairobi last week, bringing in Ulinzi Stars’ goalkeeper Timothy Odhiambo, who made his fourth appearance in national team colours in place of Sharks’ custodian Brian Bwire.
Odhiambo had made his national team debut for the U-20 in 2016 against Sudan and later made two appearances for Emerging Stars against Uzbekistan in March.
KCB’s Michael Kibwage replaced Mathare United’s Johnstone Omurwa as Sony Sugar’s Tobias Otieno made his debut as Teddy Osok’s replacement.
Abdallah Ahmed and Jaffari Owiti, who ply their trades with Mathare and AFC Leopards respectively replaced KCB’s Chrispinus Onyango and Sharks’ winger James Mazembe.
Carrying a five-goal advantage to the match, Stars needed at least a draw to qualify but the goal hunger Kenyan youngsters saw Sofapaka forward open the scoring proceedings in the 40th minute.
Former Kariobangi Sharks winger Ovella Ochieng, who turns for IF Vasulund in Sweden, doubled the scores in the 52nd minute before Mazembe came off the bench to curl a corner kick straight to the net to give Kenya the third goal shortly before the hosts managed a consolation minutes later.