KAMPALA - Zambia’s President of the Football Federation, Kalusha Bwalya has admitted that facing Rwanda in the 2010 World Cup/Africa Nations Cup qualifiers will not be an easy task.

"Rwanda has always been improving in the past four years. They will be a hard nut to crack when we face them in the group competition,” said Bwalya during an interview with Times Sport at Hotel Equatorial in Kampala.

Rwanda is pooled along side the Chiplopolo of Zambia, Algeria and African champions Egypt in Group C. The Amavubi open their campaign in the qualifiers with a home game against Algeria in March.

The former Zambian skipper and tactician said taking all three points will be the first strategy if any country will want to qualify.

"It is good we shall host Rwanda first before we travel for the away game. This will give us good time to assess their system of play before we face-off in the second leg,” said Bwalya.

The absence of key players in both the Zambia and Amavubi team will deprive the technical benches chance to spy on the ability of the opposition ahead of the 2010 World Cup/Africa Nations Cup qualifying campaign.

Rwanda has never qualified for the World Cup finals, but last made it to the Africa Nations show piece in 2004 during the event held in Tunisia.

Bwalya, one of Africa’s most decorated players is in Uganda to morale boost the Zambia team that is taking part in the East and Central Africa Senior Challenge Cup (Cecafa) championship as guests.

Interestingly the Chipolopolo are grouped along side two other nations that qualified for the next round of the 2010 World Cup/Africa Nations Cup qualifier, Kenya and Sudan. Burundi and Djibouti are the other two teams in Group B.

The Amavubi are pooled in Group A along side hosts Uganda, Tanzania, Zanzibar and Somalia.

The GTV-sponsored Cecafa Challenge Cup which enters its fourth day today will climax on January 13 with the finals at Namboole Stadium.

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