TodayGroup BEthiopia vs Mozambique 6pmGroup ASenegal vs Rwanda 8pmDR Congo vs Madagascar 10pm

WednesdayDR Congo 36-31 Rwanda

RWANDA will be looking for a win on Thursday night to reach semi-finals after losing 31-36 against the Democratic Republic of Congo last evening at the ongoing U20 Men’s IHF Continental Phase – Africa in Dakar, Senegal.

The hosts Senegal and debutants Rwanda face-off tonight, at 8pm (CAT) in a game from which the victors book their place on Friday’s semi-finals. Going into today’s encounter, both teams have won one and lost one of their opening two games.

On Wednesday, Rwanda trailed their Congolese opponents 3-1 and 5-2 in the first 5 minutes but recovered from a slow start to take the lead and go into-half with a narrow 17-16 advantage.

Antoine Ntabanganyimana’s boys kept pushing and led until the last 10 minutes when they started to lose momentum, which DR Congo capitalized on to push ahead and eventually won the game 36-31 in a match that saw the Rwanda’s captain Jean Paul Muhawenayo, red-carded.

DR Congo, one of the tournament’s favorites and have already advanced to the last four finals, face Madagascar in their last group game at 10pm, while Ethiopia will be up against Mozambique at 6pm in a Group B encounter.

In a post-match interview, Ntabanganyimana said, "It is unfortunate that we lost this game, we deserved better. We led the game for most of the time, but, players lost energy in the last 10 minutes, which cost us so dearly. Hopefully, we will play wiser against Senegal on Thursday.”

editorial@newtimes.co.rw