CHAN Qualifier: Amavubi coach rues lack of friendlies

The national team coach Carlos Alos Ferrer is not pleased with his team's lack of friendly games ahead of the 2023 CHAN qualifier against Ethiopia in Tanzania this Friday. The Spanish gaffer admits it is a herculean task considering the fact that his side did not play any preparatory match although the attitude of his players in training has been great and is confident of a good result. Rwanda were exempted from the first qualifying round by CAF whereas Ethiopia defeated South Sudan 5-0 on aggregate and has also played against the Cranes of Uganda in two friendly games in Tanzania winning 1-0 and drawing goalless respectively. Alos maintains that although the game will be difficult since he didn't get any friendly game to assess the strength of his team, he is confident of getting a great result at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium and finish the job in the return leg in Huye. We play against a good team who are in a good moment and they have had a lot of time to prepare. Alos told Times Sport in an interview. On the other hand, I’m not happy with the short time we have had to prepare and with no possibility to play any friendly match. However, the attitude of the players has been very good and I’m happy with them. We will try our best and we want to play in the second leg in Huye on September 3rd with a good result from Tanzania. He added. The main strength of the Ethiopians lies in their defense as they have gone 360 minutes in their last four games without conceding a goal and the Amavubi attackers made up of Dominique Antoine Ndayishimiye and Yves Mugunga should be at their very best in order to break their resilience. The Amavubi on the other hand have a pool of great players such as Rayon Sports captain Abdul Rwatubyaye who has seen it all at the big stage including the European Champions League with FK Shkupi and will be able to lead the team. The game which is slated for Friday, August 26 in Dar es Salaam will be the 13th meeting between the two countries since April 26, 1981 with Rwanda winning four, drawing three and losing five. Rwanda are unbeaten in their last four games against Ethiopia and it was the Amavubi who dashed the hopes of the Walia Ibex from qualifying for the last edition of the CHAN as they beat them 1-0 on aggregate. The Amavubi will be hoping to make it to the 2023 CHAN competition in Algeria which will be their fifth participation since 2016. Rwanda's best achievement in the CHAN competition was the quarterfinals berth in 2016 on home soil and in the last tournament in Cameroon.