The national football team (Amavubi) continued their impressive form under Torsten Spittler with an emphatic 2-0 win over Madagascar in a FIFA international friendly game in Antananarivo on Monday, March 25. The German coach made two changes in the line-up which drew goalless with Botswana on Friday, as he brought on the Belgium-based duo of goalkeeper Maxime Wenssens and midfielder Hakim Sahabo for Fiacre Ntwari and Lague Byiringiro, respectively. Amavubi started with a 4-3-3 formation, with Sahabo on the right side of the attack, while Innocent Nshuti was deployed in the middle and Gilbert Mugisha on the left. Rwanda had the first chance in the game in the 3rd minute when Fitina Omborenga overlapped, beat his marker and delivered a nice cross which was cleared by the Malagasy defence for a corner. A mistake by Ange Mutsinzi nearly gave Madagascar the lead in the 10th minute, as the centre back, in an attempt to dribble past striker Arnaud Randrianantenaina, lost the ball in his own penalty box. The Madagascar forward fired a shot at Rwanda’s goal but goalkeeper Wenssens brilliantly parried the ball away, before Thierry Manzi cleared it out of danger. In another nervous incident, in the 15th minute, left back Emmanuel Imanishimwe lost his footing as he attempted to clear a ball but Manzi again quickly cleared the ball. In the 20th minute, Sahabo found space in the opponent’s half and lobbed a ball to Nshuti who tried to push his way through the Madagascan defence but the danger was thwarted. Rwanda started to gain more confidence as the first half progressed. They chose to possess the ball more and draw the home side out of its half. At almost the half-hour mark, a superb pass from deep in the midfield by Muhire found Gilbert Mugisha who had drifted into a central attacking role and that was the moment! The deft attacker beat his man with pace before placing the ball past the on-rushing goalkeeper Teva Gardies for Amavubi’s first goal in the 28th minute. Rwanda looked well composed as they played a well organised game Both teams created a number of chances but no more goals were scored in the first half as it ended 1-0. The second half started with the same fast tempo as Madagascar pushed more men forward in search of an equalizer. Rwanda remained composed and managed to avoid the defensive errors like those they made in the first half. Imanishimwe made a couple of runs into the Madagascar half, key of which was in the 58th minute. He crossed the ball into the box, but Nshuti failed to connect. Rwanda had a free kick within Madagascar’s half during the 71st minute, following a foul on Muhire. Sahabo took it, delivering a good ball to Imanishimwe. The left back found space and made a fine cross, but Steve Rubanguka failed to capitalise on it to score. Spittler brought on Abeddy Biramahire and Arthur Gitego for Innocent Nshuti and Gilbert Mugisha with 18 minutes to go. The duo contributed their share with good hold up play as Rwanda continued to dominate the game. With pressure mounting on Madagascar, Amavubi got their second goal in the 91st minute through skipper Djihad Bizimana who fired a low shot from outside the box to make it 2-0. Amavubi are now unbeaten in four games under Spittler. They have won two, drawn two, scored four goals and conceded none.
