African Under-17 Championship

Fixtures

Today
Sudan      v   Rwanda
Tunisia     v   Burkina Faso
Nigeria     v   Benin
Cameroon v   Gabon

Rwanda opens its battle for a place in the final round of the 8th Africa U-17 championships today with a clash against Sudan in Khartoum.

The country’s youth side which got off to a radiant start in the preliminary round after seeing off Kenya will be aiming for a repeat against one of the region’s giants Sudan this afternoon.

The U-17s are expected to be in the right frame of mind after a productive two-week training stint in Frankfurt, Germany.

Although an away win will be more than a good result for Rwanda, a draw will also do just fine for the visitors ahead of the return leg scheduled in a fortnight.

Rwanda qualified for the first round after a 4-3 goal aggregate cushion over Kenya. After being held by Kenya to a 2-2 draw in Kigali, the youngsters pulled off an impressive display in Nairobi when they humiliated the home team with a 2-1 victory.

Should Rwanda progress to the next stage, they will play the winner between Tunisia and Burkina Faso in the second round qualifiers.

Meanwhile, twenty-eight teams including reigning world champions, Nigeria will be involved in action this weekend. The Nigerians drew bye from the preliminaries and are expected to face a keen test against Benin.

Ghana will face Libya, South Africa will come up against Malawi, Tunisia hosts Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe hosts reunion while Angola face Botswana and Ivory Coast comes face to face with Senegal.

Guinea will face Guinea-Bissau, Cameroon is up against Gabon and Eritrea will host DR Congo. However, Zambia’s fixture against Namibia has been postponed to September 5-7 due to the ongoing mourning period of the dead Zambian President Levi Mwanawasa.

Second leg matches have been scheduled for September 12-14 with the winners progressing to the final round of the qualifying rounds. The finals will be held next year in Algeria.

Probable line-up: Emery Mvuyekure, Bonfils Twahirwa, James Tubane, Annual Daddy Kibaya, Amani Uwiringiyimana, Jean Marie Rukundo, Heriman Ngoma, Jean Claude Iranzi, Ernest Kwizera, Christian Uwumukiza and Djamar Mwiseneza.

Ends