Saturday

2015 Afcon Qualifier

Rwanda vs. Congo

AMAVUBI INTERIM skipper Jean Baptiste Mugiraneza is confident Rwanda will overcome Congo Brazzaville this Saturday to qualify to the group stage round of the 2015 Africa Nations’ Cup qualifiers.

Mugiraneza’s remarks come after Amavubi’s win against  Gabon in an international friendly match played on Sunday away in Libreville. Striker Meddie Kagere scored the lone goal in the 67th minute to register a second win for Rwanda over Gabon in two friendly matches played under Coach Stephen Constantine. The game ended 1-0 in favour of Amavubi.

"It’s unfortunate that we lost to Congo Brazzaville in the first leg but ever since we started camp in Libreville, we have been training hard. Our preparations have solely been based on devising means of scoring goals,”

"We have been given tips to try and make many scoring attempts and if we can replicate this kind of performance we put up against Gabon, then we can eliminate Congo Brazzaville in Kigali,”

Mugiraneza appealed for everyone’s support as a matter of national interest.

"We know we are facing a good side but we believe it’s possible to score as many goals as we want from our backyard,” he added.

Coach Constantine said he has good  players who only need to work on  the confidence such that they can do what they are capable of doing

"It’s what I told them when we played against Gabon,” Constantine said.

He further added that the return leg against Congo will be a difficult affair. "It’s going to be a difficult game. We are down, we need to score two goals at least but I think we need to be patient and fans should understand this,”

"We don’t need to score in the first minute but we can score in the second half and if we can get two goals, Congo will be under a great deal of pressure,” added the former Malawi and Sudan coach.

The national team is expected in Kigali this evening from Gabon ahead of  Saturday’s decisive qualifier.

Rwanda suffered a major setback as they conceded two second half goals against Congo in first leg and they must now score three times without conceding to keep alive their hopes of the second round of Africa Cup of Nations 2015 qualifiers.

The winner seals an automatic place in Group A which is comprised of South Africa, Nigeria and Sudan.