APR aim for league and cup double

AFTER booking a place in the quarter-finals of the Peace Cup, APR interim coach Vincent Mashami has rallied his team to stay focused in a bid to win the league and cup double this season.

Thursday, April 17, 2014
APR team that started the Peace Cup match against AS Muhanga. The seven-time champion won 10-9 in shootouts to progress to the last eight. Timothy Kisambira

AFTER booking a place in the quarter-finals of the Peace Cup, APR interim coach Vincent Mashami has rallied his team to stay focused in a bid to win the league and cup double this season.

The army side has won a league and cup double on five occasions in 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The military side has also won the Peace cup a record seven times.  Goalkeeper Jean Claude Ndoli was man of the day as he saved two spot kicks in a dramatic 10-9 win over AS Muhanga in the 1/8th round of the Peace Cup at Kigali Regional stadium on Wednesday.

The regular 90 minutes ended goalless.

However APR played without the key starters including Jean Claude Iranzi, Patrick Sibomana, Emery Bayisenge, Charles Tibingana and Olivier Kwizera due to injuries. This partly explained why the club failed to break a determined AS Muhanga in regular time

 APR are still in the race to win the league title. The team is second on the table, level on 55 points with leaders and defending champions Rayon Sports—with only three rounds of matches remaining.

 "It was a tough game. We could have won the game in normal time but it wasn’t to be as Muhanga defended well throughout the 90 minutes,” Mashami told Times Sport

He congratulated players for ensuring that APR progressed to the quarter-final but cautioned them to stay calm and focused because any slight mistake will hurt "our title hopes.”

APR will face the winner between holders AS Kigali and Rayon Sports in the quarter-finals. The 1/8th round tie between Rayon and AS Kigali will be played on June 6.

AS Kigali won their 1/16th round fixture against second division side Rwamagana (3-1) on Wednesday.