August 2

Rwanda vs Congo

Mauritania vs Uganda

Kenya vs Lesotho

Mozambique vs Tanzania

AMAVUBI TEAM tactician Stephen Constantine has not lost hope as Amavubi prepare for the second leg against Congo Brazzaville in a bid to qualify to the group stage round of the 2015 Africa Nations’ Cup qualifiers. 

Rwanda suffered a major setback as they conceded two second half goals against Congo on Sunday in their first tie of the second round of Africa Cup of Nations 2015 qualifiers. 

The two sides entered the break on a goalless draw, but AC Léopards midfielder Césaire Gandzé finally broke the deadlock in the 70th minute for the Red Devils before Bulgaria-based forward Férébory Doré sealed the victory for the home side with less than ten minutes to go. 

With those two unanswered goals, Coach Claude Leroy’s men have done their job before a very tricky trip to Kigali on August 2 for the return leg, and have all the cards in hand to reach the final round of qualifiers. 

Amavubi must now score three times without conceding to keep alive their hopes of a second Afcon finals after their first ever appearance in Tunisia in 2004. 

While commenting on the 2-0 loss, Constantine said that a combination of things led to the poor start in this qualification round. 

"We didn’t start very well; obviously we expected Congo to put a lot of pressure on us from the first whistle which they did,” explained Constantine. 

The head coach said the team played a lot of high balls. 

"We just didn’t get the ball down and play as we did against Libya,”  he added. 

Another setback according to the head coach was that the team kept playing long balls and yet the instructions were that the players try and keep the ball down.

"Two individual errors cost us dearly and we can’t afford to make those errors again. In the return leg, there won’t be wholesale changes because of two individual mistakes. We don’t have a big pool of players to select from, so we just need to tighten up a little bit from making silly mistakes and try not to repeat those mistakes,” 

"The first leg is over but if we can get an early goal in Kigali, then we have a chance and I think we do have a chance back in Kigali but it will not be easy for the players but we will try,” he added. 

Amavubi will play the return leg without injured goal keeper Jean Claude Ndoli who suffered a knee injury on Sunday. 

But it is still a long way to Morocco for the two sides, as the overall winners of this round will have to battle with South Africa, Nigeria and Sudan for one of the two qualifying spots in Group A.