Eritrea’s national U-23 team will open the first game of the tournament against hosts Ethiopia on July 17th as the CECAFA U-23 Challenge Cup kicks-off in Bahir Dar. The game was supposed to be played on Sunday July 18th and according to the schedule that was sent out by CECAFA it should have remained that way but it has now changed to Saturday July 17th, 2021 upon a decision by the league.Eritrea, Ethiopia and Burundi are placed in Pool B. Eritrea’s second game in Pool B will be against Burundi on July 21st.

Meanwhile the 2021 season for CECAFA will see defending champions Uganda take on guest side Democratic Republic of Congo in the opening match in Pool A. Tanzania is the other team in Pool A.

Djibouti, South Sudan and Kenya are placed in Pool C in this tournament which will run from July 18-31st. The top teams in each of the groups will automatically qualify for the semi finals. Meanwhile, the best runners up from any of the three groups will take the 4th place spot in the semi-finals. The team that finishes in last place (9th) after the group stage will not play any more games. The teams that finish from 5th to 8th place will also play in a mini contest to determine the rankings. The semi finals will be played on July 28th, while the finals will take place on July 31st. It is to be noted that all the matches will be played at the resort city of Bahir Dar’s Stadium.
According to players from the Red Sea Camels and Coach Mekonnen Zewde, the team is prepared to do better than their last outcome in 2019 when Eritrea took second place in a loss to Uganda.