‘Rwanda can make it to Wcup’

2014 World Cup qualifierSundayRwanda vs MaliInternational friendly WednesdayRwanda vs LibyaIt may sound ridiculous to others but Amavubi Stars head coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojovic has told Times Sport he has a “dream of qualifying for the World Cup Brazil 2014.”Rwanda take on Mali in Group H 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers on Sunday and Micho remains optimistic his team could not only get the three crucial points but also boost their hopes of being on the plane to Brazil for the world’s biggest football competition.“My dream is to be in the world cup, and no one can stop me from dreaming, I am doing all I can to make sure we’re totally ready to face Mali. I am concerned with my work, the players and the Rwandan people. So we all need to pull in the same direction on Sunday if we’re to get the points against Mali,” the Serb told Times Sport on Monday.He added, “We want to win the match against Mali because it will help us in terms of confidence going into the last two qualifiers. We respect Mali but without over respecting, they’re a very good side but we’ll be playing at home, so why not dream.”Micho admitted that he is aware of the hurdle his team is going to encounter but the players know what is expected of them.“Playing at this level comes with so much pressure but that’s football, we have to deal with it. We will be aiming for a good result. Mali has top players but we have to concentrate on ourselves,” noted the former SC Villa coach.Meanwhile, seven of the ten professional players have already joined the Amavubi training camp. They include; Elias Uzamukunda [AS Cannes], Steven Godfroid [St. Giloisse] and Tanzania’s Yanga pair of Mbuyu Twite and Haruna Niyonzima, Jessy Reindorf [UR Namur], Kalisa Mao [TP Mazembe] and Dady Birori [AS Vita].Two more, including skipper Olivier Karekezi and Edwin Ouon are expected in camp on Tuesday, while Belgium-based defender Salomon Nirisarike will join on Wednesday.For Micho to see his dream come true, his team, bottom of the group with one point after two qualifiers, must win the remaining four matches, starting on Sunday against Mali (home), Benin (away), Algieria (home and Mali (away), and hope that all the other results go in Rwanda’s favour. Benin leads with four points. Algeria and Mali have three points each.Ahead of Sunday must-win clash, Amavubi will play an international friendly match against Libya on Wednesday at Amahoro stadium. In the last meeting between the two teams last year, Libya beat Rwanda 2-0 in Tunisia in a friendly as Amavubi were preparing for the first World Cup Brazil 2014 qualifier against Algeria, which Micho’s team lost 4-0. Libya plays DR Congo in the world cup qualifier at the weekend in Kinshasa.

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‘Rwanda can make it to Wcup’