2015 Afcon qualifiers

May 18

Libya vs. Rwanda

May 30

Rwanda vs. Libya

SKIPPER Haruna Niyonzima has reaffirmed the national team’s determination to reach far in the upcoming 2015 Africa Nations Cup qualifying campaign.

Haruna made the remarks during an interview with a local radio station yesterday. He said that despite the disappointing results in the past, the Amavubi team is ready to make improvements in the upcoming qualifying campaign.

"We have been heartbroken and disappointed with our results in the previous campaigns, but the upcoming matches will be a platform to change. We have a new technical team and I believe we will work hard as a team to ensure that we bring pride to our nation. We still need support from Rwandans and I believe we have a chance to redeem ourselves against Libya in bid to progress to the next round,” the foreign based professional with Tanzanian club Young Africans said on Radio 10. He joined the Amavubi camp on Wednesday.

The other foreign based players including striker Dady Birori (AS Vita), Salomon Nirisarike (Royal Antwerp) and Elias Uzamukunda (AS Cannes) will join camp on Monday.

Friendly match ruled out

Meanwhile, the planned friendly match between Rwanda and Botswana slated for Tuesday next week has been called off.

Initially, Botswana Football Federation had requested their Rwandan counterparts for the friendly match as part of their build-up ahead of their 2015 Africa Nations Cup qualifier against Burundi.  

"The (Botswana Football Federation) communicated that they didn’t have enough time to prepare for the friendly match and again prepare for their qualifier against Burundi,” Amavubi administrator Alfred Ngarambe explained the reason for the cancelation.

Just like Rwanda, Botswana’s senior national football team, the Zebras have to negotiate a tough road to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations scheduled for Morocco early next year.

The Zebras will face Burundi in a two-legged preliminary first round qualifier. They will travel to Bujumbura to face the ‘Intamba mu Rugamba’ of Burundi over the weekend of May 16-18.

Botswana will then host Burundi in Gaborone in a return fixture scheduled for the weekend of May 30-June 1.

Assistant coach for the Amavubi, Andre Cassa Mbungo had hoped to use this crucial match to assess his team and pick his 20-man team for next week’s first leg encounter against Chan title holders Libya, on May 18 in Tunisia.

"It is very unfortunate that Botswana has canceled the game. The match was very important because it’s the only platform I wanted to engage my players before facing Libya since we didn’t have enough time to prepare for this qualifying campaign,” added Cassa Mbungo.

The second leg between Rwanda and Libya will be played on May 30, and the winners of the game will either face Namibia or Congo to decide who proceeds to group stages.