Kenya vs The Gambia: Preview, Time and Where to Watch as Harambee Stars Look to Floor Scorpions

Harambee Stars will be playing for pride when they take on The Gambia at Kasarani Stadium on Friday but the match still holds significance for Benni McCarthy’s team.

Kenya host The Gambia in their seventh match of the World Cup qualification phase but their hopes of going to USA, Mexico and Canada are all but over after Gabon’s win over Seychelles on Wednesday.

It is therefore the need to build confidence ahead of their next assignments as well as boosting their FIFA rankings that will be motivating the Kenyan players at Kasarani.

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Morale is still high in camp after their run to the quarter-final of CHAN 2024 and McCarthy is delighted to have most of the players from the tournament in his squad which means he will not have a hard tie selecting the starting XI as compared to when he faced The Gambia in March.

At the time, the South African coach had just arrived and did not know his players but they still managed a great comeback, coming from two goals down to draw 3-3 but he has now had time to understand the strengths and weaknesses of his squad.

This will just be the second meeting between Harambee Stars and the Scorpions since their first meeting in March 2025 that ended 3-3.

During the encounter, there was plenty of drama as Musa Barrow had an early penalty saved by Ian Otieno, who is not in the squad this time, but he atoned for his miss when he broke the deadlock in the 55th minute before Yankuba Minteh added the second six minutes later.

A Michael Olunga penalty eight minutes later reduced the arrears before Mohammed Bajaber scored a cracker to level matters, a goal that has since made him a superstar.

Burrow curled in a beauty for The Gambia six minutes later after poor defending from Kenya but debutant William Lenkupae scored for Harambee Stars with the last kick of the game to end the contest in dramatic fashion.

The match will kick off at 4pm (East African Time) on Friday and will be live and free on KCB TV. Fans can also stream the match on FIFA+ via https://www.plus.fifa.com/en/?gl=ke.