adminthe scramble for a ticket to South Africa on the away-goal rule after losing the second leg 2-0 in Addis Ababa.
Supporters of the Walias Antelopes — an endangered species found in the mountains of northern Ethiopia — danced and sang late into the night in the streets of the capital to celebrate a return to the Cup of Nations.
When the fearless national team walk on to the Mbombela Stadium pitch in Nelspruit on January 21 to face title holders Zambia they will be ending a three-decade absence from the African football showcase.
Ethiopia have been drawn with Zambia, Nigeria and Burkina Faso in Group C and the last time they played in the tournament 31 years ago they also met the Chipolopolo (Copper Bullets) and the Super Eagles in Libya.
The Antelopes fell 3-0 to Nigeria and 1-0 to Zambia and just about every football supporter outside the east African state expects similar outcomes this time, leaving the Ethiopians and the Burkinabe to fight for third place.
Just getting to the 2013 tournament has been a great achievement for coach Sewnet Bishaw and his team as they eliminated favoured Benin, also on away goals, before being paired with Sudan.
Bishaw is in his second spell at the helm and has changed the weekend life style of many countrymen, who traditionally shunned a struggling national side and watched televised English Premier League and Spanish La Liga games instead.
“We worked really hard to qualify and people should appreciate that. We cleared difficult hurdles in Benin and Sudan and will not make life easy for any of our opponents,” he told Ethiopian reporters. — AFP.
Online Reporter