WednesdayRwanda vs Algeria (Stade Olympique d’El Manzeh, 3:30)

RWANDA will take on Algeria in the last warm-up game today at Stade Olympique d’El Manzeh in Tunis ahead of the forthcoming 2018 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) finals tournament, which will run from January 13 to February 4 in Morocco.

The friendly match between Rwanda and Algeria will be Amavubi’s last assessment for Coach Antoine Hey before the team heads to Morocco on Thursday for the CHAN tournament.

Hey said all Rwandans should be confident that the national team will put up a spirited performance in the competition.

"We are happy with the performance so far, this is working well, players are doing better and all in all we are giving our best in everything we are doing. We are looking forward to the game against Algeria and we hope to get positive results to build on,” the German tactician said.

"We had two more training sessions on Monday and Tuesday and we hope the game will give us the good picture of our preparations,” added Coach Antoine.

Hey said players are fine and believes that by the time of the tournament, they will do much better because of the warm up games they played.

Rwanda played 40 minutes against Sudan on Saturday before the match was called off due to a scuffle between players while they drew 1-1 against Namibia on Sunday.

Rwanda will be making a second appearance in Africa’s second biggest international tournament, which is reserved for only players playing in their respective domestic leagues.

After playing a 1-all draw against Namibia on Sunday and resting Monday, Amavubi will hold their last session on Tuesday before heading to Tunis for Wednesday’s friendly match against Algeria.

DR Congo won the first CHAN edition in 2009; Tunisia won the second edition in 2011, the 2014 edition in South Africa was won by Libya while the last edition of 2016 was hosted by Rwanda and DR Congo emerged champions.

Rwanda will face Libya, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea in Group C whose venue is in Tanger, Morocco.

Rwanda qualified for CHAN 2018 after beating Ethiopia 3-2 on aggregate score over two legs. This is Rwanda’s third appearance in CHAN finals after 2011 and 2016.

Africa’s second biggest football tournament gathers exclusively players featuring in their respective domestic leagues. It is held once in two years since its inception in 2009 in Ivory Coast. The next edition which will be hosted by Ethiopia will be staged in 2020.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw