Gritty Olunga delights in 'fantastic' win over Qatar

“Playing Qatar will be a good friendly for us. If you want to compete with the best you must play some of these games. It’s a high profile game also played in a World Cup Stadium. It’s a familiar territory for me so it’s a friendly fire.”

Those were the words of Kenya men’s national football team - Harambee Stars - captain Michael Olunga last Monday as he spoke on the importance of their first of two friendlies lined up in the international window.

To Thursday then, all the boxes in his statement were ticked - even the friendly fire one - as he engineered (no pun intended) a way to squeeze a last minute ball to a free Amos Nondi at the back post to seal a memorable 2-1 win over Qatar at the Al-Janoub Stadium in Doha.

“Fantastic,” Olunga said in an interview shortly after the game. “Winning against a really good and top-ranked side like Qatar is a big achievement for us. Such a great feeling.”

In many instances, a friendly fixture doesn’t normally elicit such high emotions, but for Kenya - a country ranked 46 places below Qatar - the excitement was visible from Engin Firat’s crazy leap in his touchline, and Olunga raising his arms up in celebration after the goal.

Even by his admission however, the game wasn’t all rosy.

“That was a difficult game,” he said. “We had to endure for some minutes and finally saw it off. Such a great win.”

After going ahead thanks to a powerful headed goal from Joseph Okumu, Stars were pegged back by a Hassan Al Haydos penalty moments later, and it was a knackered Olunga laying his efforts in a familiar ground, ensuring that Kenya returned home with a win.

His first involvement on the opposite end of the goal came in the 51st minute as he stood firm to block Abdulaziz Hatem’s shot that seemed to be heading goalwards, and was also at hand to deflect a crossed ball from the right in the 68th minute.

Nondi buries late winner as Harambee Stars edge Qatar in memorable friendly

The only concern was that he deflected it against Bryne Odhiambo’s upright, and was also on the ground for a few minutes as he seemed to take a late knock.

As a skipper does, he wore his heart on his sleeve, played all minutes, before handing Nondi his debut goal in the senior national team.

“Proud of the collective effort. My team Kenya,” Olunga tweeted minutes after the game. “Thank you so much for the support.”

With the first assignment done to near perfection, Kenya will now turn their eyes to a second friendly, when they welcome South Sudan at the Nyayo National Stadium on 12 September.