Sudan needed a late penalty to hold Eritrea to a 3-3 draw in a Group A match on Monday at the on-going Cecafa U-20 Challenge Cup.

Mewael Tesfai Yosief who also scored in the 1-1 draw against Uganda in the opening game put Eritrea ahead after 10 minutes at the Pece War Memorial Stadium in Gulu.

But Sudan continued to create some decent scoring opportunities. Mohamed Abbas Namir made it 1-1 with a fine goal on 40 minutes before Shihab Eldeen Abdalrahman gave Sudan the lead at the stroke of half time.

After recess Michael Robel Teklem leveled matters for Eritrea’s after 55 minutes when he converted a penalty.

The two sides continued to create several scoring opportunities before Ali Suleiman Ibrahim scored Eritrea’s third goal after 73 minutes.

After the fourth official had indicated 3 minutes of added extra time Sudan were awarded a penalty. Musab Kurdman Elfaki made no mistake converting.

After two draws Eritrea are in third place and only need a draw in their last game against Djibouti on Wednesday to make it to the quarter final stage.

“We did not defend well today and got punished for that. We now need to win against Djibouti to be able to progress to the quarter finals,” said Eritrea’s coach Efem Alemseged.

Already Sudan, Uganda Hippos and Burundi have qualified for the knock out stage. On Tuesday Tanzania will face Kenya, while two Ethiopia take on Zanzibar in Group B matches.

Group A standings

               P    W   D    L   GF  GA  A    Pts

Sudan   2     1    1    0     7    3    4     4

Uganda 2    1    1    0     6    2    4     4

Eritrea  2     0    2    0     4    0    4     2

Djibouti 2    0    0    2     1    9   -8     0