Ethiopia Bunna and Kidus Giorgis contest each other in the week 8 of the Ethiopian Premier League tie on Sunday at the Addis Ababa Stadium. Sheger Derby, as it’s locally known, is the much anticipated duel of the capital and it is going to attract a large fans turnout rate as it is expected.
Kidus Giorgis are the third in the league with 14 points after Dedebit and Adama Ketema won their games on Saturday. Meanwhile, their cross city rivals Ethiopia Bunna are 11th, 10 points adrift of the leaders.
Kidus Giorgis Dutch coach Mart Nooji stated his charges won’t underestimate their opponents. “Our Preparation has been rather good. Every week we are training intensively. We have a lot of games in front of us like the premier league, the knockout cup and the CAF Champions League. We take each game very seriously. We are not joking with anybody likewise we respect out opponents either it’s a foreign team or an Ethiopian team. We will try to be more offensive and attractive in style. All in all we will try to win the game.”
Kidus Giorgis will be without influential winger Behailu Assefa who is sustaining an injury since the start of the week and defensive midfielder Tesfaye Alebachew is a doubt. Nonetheless, Nooji is not worried about any injury concern. “We have got 21 fit players so we have enough players who can make it to the 18 man squad.”
Ethiopia Bunna Serbian trainer Nebojša Vučićević on his behalf told Soccer Ethiopia the derby game came at the right moment as his charges look to bounce back following their poor start of the season. “It is a big game. The game could be a very good inspiration for the players. The game came in a very good time for us.”
Vučićević also vividly noted that his team was working on their attacking proficiency. “In every training session we have allocated 25-30 minutes to a goal scoring training. In the last 7 games we have got plenty of chances that we squandered. If we had scored those squandered chances, we would have been leading the league by now. I believe in the coming games everything will go as planned.”
Ethiopia Bunna will be without Captain Mesoud Mohammed due to a knee injury. Right back Abdulkerim Mohammed is also out of the game. The Horsemen have the upper hand on head to head records against their cross city rivals Ethiopia Bunna. Since the Ethiopian Premier League restructured in 1997/98 season Ethiopia Bunna have beaten the 13 times Ethiopian champions Kidus Giorgis 6 times only. Both sides will be out on hunt for maximum points in a packed Addis Ababa Stadium when the lock horns on an exciting derby day. The game starts at 16:00 in the afternoon.
