Aug. 28 

Rwanda vs Ethiopia

Sept. 5

AFCON qualifierRwanda vs Ghana

Rwanda national football team (Amavubi Stars), will play against Ethiopia in an international friendly match on August 28 at Amahoro stadium. The Rwanda Football Association secretary general Olivier Mulindahabi has said.

"The Ethiopia football federation wrote to us asking for a friendly match against Amavubi Stars on August 28 and we agreed to the request since the game will also benefit our national team,” Mulindahabi told Times Sport on Wednesday.

He added, "Ethiopia national team is very good and it will be a good test for our national team as we prepare to host Ghana in a Group H qualifier of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations next month.”

The friendly against Ethiopia follows the cancellation of the earlier proposed friendly between Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo on August 29 in Kinshasa.

The Ethiopia friendly is intended to intensify Amavubi’s preparations for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Ghana due on September 5 at Amahoro stadium as well as the 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) finals tournament which will be staged in Rwanda from January 16 to February 7 next year.

The Walias of Ethiopia will also be using the Amavubi test as part of preparations for the Group J AFCON qualifier against Seychelles. Ethiopia started the qualifiers campaign on a high note by beating Lesotho 2-1 in Addis Ababa.

Rwanda stand second in Group H of AFCON qualifiers with three points, level with Ghana but the later top the table courtesy of a better goal difference having walloped Mauritius 7-1 in the opening qualifier while Amavubi won 1-0 away to Mozambique in June.

Johnny McKinstry’s Amavubi Stars will start residential camp on August 23 after the earlier planned two-week training camp in Glasgow, Scotland flopped due to delay in acquiring UK visas .

editorial@newtimes.co.rw