Group H

SaturdayIvory Coast Vs Guinea

SundayCAR Vs Rwanda

Amavubi head coach Antoine Hey has admitted that Sunday’s opening match of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Central African Republic will be a good test of the team’s new playing system.

The match will be played at Stade Barthelemy Boganda in Bangui. The Rwandan delegation touched base in Bangui on Friday night and will hold a training session at the game venue on Saturday.

The German tactician, who will be taking charge of his first competitive match since taking over as Amavubi head coach at the start of last month, has introduced the new system of using three defenders and wing backs.

All his predecessors were using the traditional 4-4-2 system. Hey contends that the new system will provide more chances for the strikers, which has been the team’s biggest problem.

Before playing against Morocco in two warm-up matches last weekend, Amavubi had spent nearly nine months without engaging in any friendly game, but Hey believes that will not affect his side.

Hey said that, "This team had a very intensive training programme and they have done extremely very well. They have responded very well to the changes that we’re trying to implement, which they are not used to. The game on Sunday will be a good test of our new system.”

"The atmosphere in the team is very good, much focused, very professional and the players have worked very hard and some of them really feel it.

"On Sunday we are not playing a friendly but a competitive match and we expect the Central African Republic to come out with all force because it’s the first group match at home and they feel they have a chance to win it,” he noted.

Central African Republic have never lost at home since 2010 but Hey says Amavubi have to win in order to boost their hopes of qualifying for the second ever AFCON finals tournament from Group H that also includes; Guinea and the 2015 champions, Ivory Coast.

Amavubi will take on Central African Republic a day after The Elephants host Guinea at Stade de Bouaké in Abidjan, while the remaining qualifiers will be staged between March and November 2018.

The winner of each group alongside the best three second-placed teams will qualify for the finals tournament in Cameroon.

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