CHAN

Saturday

Second leg

Rwanda     v     Sudan

Sudan national football team coach Mohammed Abdullah a.k.a Mazda has admitted that his side will approach tomorrow’s game with Rwanda at Nyamirambo stadium.

The Desert Hawks arrived in the country yesterday for their first round return leg tie against Amavubi Stars in the African Nations Championship.

Mazda speaking to Times Sport yesterday after the Desert Hawks arrival at Kigali international airport said that he doesn’t underrate Rwanda because he believes everything is possible in football.

"Both teams played well in the first leg but we were lucky to win 4-0 because we utilized our chances.

"I don’t intend to change my plan going into the return leg, which means we will play the same attacking football and defend well just like we did in Sudan a fortnight ago,” Mazda said.

Mazda further added that he has a full equipped squad and he is come here not to defend the result from the first leg but to win.

Players like Faisal Agab, Richard Gastin, Haitham Mustafa, Haitham Tumbal, and Al Moez Mahgoub are among the stars on the team. The Sudanese players are very physical and depend on their pace and stamina in settling games.

Faisal Agab is the inspiration of the Sudanese team with his goal scoring and dribbling skills. Meanwhile, Amavubi Stars coach Tucak Blanko has finally released the final 22-man squad for tomorrow’s game.

The 22 players were selected after Tuesday’s training match between the Ferwafa select and the media select, which the former won 1-0. All the 16 players on the Ferwafa select make final squad and were joined by six from the media select.

The six players included were Evaliste Mutuyimana (Kiyovu), Charles Hakizimana (Atraco), Peter Kagabo (Atraco), Hegman Ngoma (APR), Amani Uwiringiyimana (Police) and Arafat Serugendo(Mukura).

Amavubi will miss the services of versatile APR defender Elias Ntaganda with a damaged knee ligament while the APR midfield duo of Haruna Niyonzima and Jean-Baptiste Mugiraneza have started training with team after recovered their minor knocks.

Ntaganda is most likely to be replaced by one of his teammates at, Aloua Gaseruka and Eric Gasana. The Wasps face an uphill task in their bid to qualify for the second round of the inaugural African Nations’ Championship whose finals will be hosted staged in Ivory Coast next year.

The results in Khartoum mean that Sudan will be favourites to qualify on the Rwanda’s expense unless Tucak can cause an unlikely upset and beat the visitors 5-0. Whoever qualifies to the second round between Rwanda and Sudan will meet the winner of Uganda and Tanzanian.

Tanzania leads 2-0 from the first leg with the return leg on this weekend in Kampala. The second leg matches are scheduled for May 16-18, where the finals in Cote d’Ivoire run from February 22 to March 8, next year.

Ends