Azam Rwanda League

SaturdaySC Kiyovu 1-1 Marines

SundayAmagaju FC vs Rayon Sports 3:30pm

Azam Rwanda Premier League champions Rayon Sports will be aiming to impress in the next year’s CAF Champions League whey they take on Burundian champions Lydie Lydic Academic.

Rayon Sports will play the preliminary round first leg match away on the weekend of February 10-11, while the second leg will be on February 20-21.

However, head coach Olivier Karekezi, whose team face Amagaju FC in the local league on Sunday, insists that they need to go game by game at home and on the continent.

Victory today against 14th-placed Amagaju will move Rayon Sports one place up in the league table to fourth with 14 points from 7 matches, one point behind third-placed APR FC, who have played one match more.

Karekezi admits that they will first work on eliminating Lydie Lydic Academic before thinking about tacking the 2016 Champions League winners Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa in first round.

"The Champions League is the competition for men and you need to be at your top level in order to reach far in that tournament. We will go game by game, starting with the Burundian team, which will be very difficult,” Karekezi said.

Karekezi admitted that Lydie Lydic Academic will provide a formidable challenge, "It will be hard to beat because they are good side, they like to play football but we have to beat the best if we want reach far in the tournament.”

Karekezi revealed that he is looking to sign "two or three” quality players to reinforce the squad during the January transfer window. He says he’s targeting a holding midfielder, winger and a forward.

"Our target is to reach the group stages at the CAF Champions League next year. It is a big competition and to do well, you need to be stable financially, prepare well and have players who are capable of performing at the highest level against big teams,” noted the former APR FC and Amavubi skipper.

Rayon Sports were eliminated in the third round of CAF Confederation Cup last year, while APR were eliminated in the first qualifying round of CAF Champions League.

In the new CAF club competitions format, winners of both the preliminary round and round of 16 will after drawing of lots, be placed into four groups of four teams each in both Champions League and Confederation Cup.

After a round-robin of matches (home and away), the first two of each group will qualify for the quarter-finals, which opens a new phase of knockout matches till the final.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw