Saturday

Etincelles 0-1 Rayon

Gicumbi 0-0 Espoir

Mukura 1-0 Sunrise

Kirehe 0-2 Kiyovu

BONFILS Caleb Bimenyimana’s strike after nine minutes was enough to fire Rayon Sports to a winning start in the 2018/2019 Azam Rwanda Premier League as they overcame Etincelles 1-0 at Umuganda Stadium, in Rubavu District, on Saturday.

"The win is a massive boost of morale and confidence of the team, great job from my players today. We could have scored more goals but the most important thing is that we collected the three points,” Rayon Sports coach, Roberto Oliviera, said in a post-match interview.

Bimenyimena scored from a fine assist from midfielder Oliver Sefu Niyonzima.

Rayon dominated the game for most of the time and the narrow victory left many of their fans unsatisfied.

The club’s Brazilian tactician noted that, "I want to build an aggressive attack and have many players power into the opponents’ box, which can bring more chances and fouls in the area. Ball possession is my style of football, we will keep working hard  and trying to perfect it.”

The hosts improved in the second half and created a few clear chances but it was not enough to save them from defeat.

Newly appointed Etincelles coach AbdulKalim Nduhirabandi argued that his side played good football but his forwards were too wasteful in front of goal.

"We deserved better today, we could have canceled out their lead and taken control of the game. We made a terrible mistake in conceding early, it is always hard to recover when you make such as an error against a big team like Rayon,” he noted.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Gicumbi and Espoir shared goalless spoils in Gicumbi, Mukura beat Sunrise 1-0 at Huye Stadium, while Kirehe lost 2-0 to SC Kiyovu, thanks to goals from Alex Ngirimana and forward Innocent Habyarimana.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw