Saturday

Rayon Sports 1-1 Lydia Academic

RAYON SPORTS were yesterday held to 1-all draw by Burundi’s Lydia Ludic Académic in the first leg of the preliminary round of the 2018 CAF Champions League at Amahoro Stadium.

Emmanuel Bankuwiha gave the visitors the lead on the 71st minute after a swift counter attack by Omar Kabuzi.

Nine minutes later, Burundi international forward Hussein ‘Tchabalala’ Shaban equalized for Olivier Karekezi’s team after a rebound from Burundian forward Shassir Nahimana whose shot had hit the post.

The return leg will be played in Bujumbura on February 21.

It will be a must win for the Blues against the Burundian champions in the second leg to have chance of qualifying for the next round. Rayon Sports need to win or get a big scoring draw.

If Rayon Sports qualifies for the first round, they will have a mountain to climb against the 2016 champions Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa.

Rayon Sports were eliminated in the third round of CAF Confederation Cup last year, while APR were eliminated in the first round of qualifiers of CAF Champions League.

In the three times that Burundian teams have drawn Rwandan teams, they have managed to eliminate them on two occasions.

Vital’O eliminated APR FC in CAF Champions League and LLB eliminated Police FC in 2013 in the Confederation Cup while in 2014 AS Kigali eliminated Academie Tchite.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw