Harambee Stars head coach Engin Firat was over the moon after his charges broke the jinx to register their first win ever in the 2020 Qatar World Cup qualifiers.
Stars beat Rwanda 2-1 at the Nyayo Stadium on Monday evening.
The Turkish gaffer joined the team in ecstatic celebration at full-time as they chose to ignore the painful reality that they had indeed come to the end of the road in this campaign.
Firat extolled his squad for exhibiting great character by brushing aside all the off-the-field concerns that loomed large ahead of the dead rubber encounter.
“We have endured a lot of challenges as a team considering what is going on in the local football arena and I'm glad we secured our first win in this campaign,” said Firat.
“There was a lot of determination to win this match from the word go and I'm impressed we corrected all the mistakes that cost a win in Uganda on Friday. The performance was world-class, to say the least,” quipped Firat.
Stars' skipper Michael Olunga commended his teammates for heeding his call to make the country proud, albeit late in the day.
“I'm happy we played well and the results reflect well on our potential as a nation going forward. Despite this being the end of the road, we have made our fans and the entire nation proud today,” said Olunga.
Olunga led the onslaught from the front, coming on the end of Hassan Abdalla's header to fire the hosts ahead with a superb third-minute close-range shot.
Youngster Richard Odada then took the results beyond doubt after converting from the spot in the 16th minute with his maiden international goal.
This was after Eric Ouma was sent tumbling inside the box by Rwanda custodian Fiacre Ntwali.
Rwanda pulled one back in the 65th minute through a superb effort from 28-year-old APR marksman, Olivier Niyonzima.
Following the outcome, Stars wrap up the campaign in third place with six points from six matches while Rwanda finished bottom-of-the-table after managing a solitary point from all their encounters.
Mali effectively progress to the play-offs after emerging top of the pool with 16 points. Uganda finished second with nine.
