Rwanda vs Congo-Brazzaville (Amahoro Stadium, 3pm) The National football team, Amavubi will play Congo-Brazzaville in the first of two friendly matches on Thursday, January 7 at Amahoro Stadium in preparation for the 2021 CHAN tournament. The three-week competition will take place in Cameroon from January 16 to February 7, 2021 and only features players who play in their home leagues. After playing two games, Amavubi will fly to Cameroon on January, 11 ahead of the CHAN tourney. Coach Vincent Mashami is also expected to announce his final squad after the two friendlies. “Looking at how the players have done in training, I am confident we do well against Congo-Brazzaville. These two games will help us to assess the level of the players so that we can prepare well for the upcoming CHAN tournament,” Mashami said. “We must win the match so that we can boost the morale and confidence of the players; we know it will not be an easy task but we have to believe. Congo-Brazzaville is a good team, I know it quite well and I know the team players,” Mashami added. Rwanda will open its CHAN 2020 campaign against rivals, Uganda Cranes on January 18 at 10pm Rwandan time. Amavubi are pooled in Group C with defending champions Morocco and debutants West African nation Togo. After featuring in three past editions, Rwanda has only made it past the group stage once, when the country hosted the tournament in 2016. Amavubi is targeting to reach in the knockout stages while for Amavubi to secure a slot into the quarter-finals, they will need to finish in the top two.
