As Tetteh seeks bright start against Ivory coast

2012 Nations Cup qualifier

Today

Ivory Coast vs Rwanda 18.00 hours
Benin             vs   Burundi

RWANDA’S Amavubi Stars kick off their qualifying campaign for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations this evening against the Ivory Coast. The first leg match of Group H will be played in Abidjan.

The 2012 finals will be co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Amavubi Stars arrived in Abidjan at midday yesterday and held a successful training session  according to local football federation officials.

Upon arrival, they were joined by Jean Baptista Mugiraneza, who has been on trials at Bundesliga club FC Koln and Saddou Boubakary who jetted in from Oman’s Al Nahda Sports Club.

Cyprus based midfielder Louis Aniweta, who plays for Nea Salamina Famagusta linked up with the team on Friday (yesterday).

Amavubi’s Ghanaian head coach Sellas Tetteh will be hoping for a bright start for Rwanda as he looks forward to taking one step towards qualifying for the 2012 finals.

"We will be going into this game knowing we need the three points and we will not give up. We will have to fight all the way to see that we come up with a positive response.

"This team is going to play against an experienced side and though we are considered underdogs, I believe we are capable of pulling off a shock, because in football anything can happen,” said Tetteh before the team left the country on Wednesday.

Tetteh is a former Ghana  Satellites tactician, who made history by leading his home country to become the first African team to win the Fifa U-20 World Cup last year.
Under Tetteh, the Amavubi Stars have struggled to score goals and seem to have problems at the backline and in general, they have yet to play as a team.

Both tea ms clashed in a friendly game in Tanzanian as the Elephants of Ivory Coast were preparing for the 2010 Nations Cup in Angola.  The Ivorians won the game 2-0.

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