Amavubi assistant skipper Haruna Niyonzima is urging fans to exercise patience after the youthful Amavubi team lost to Angola in a pre-Nations Cup friendly match played last weekend in Luanda.

The former APR whizkid said in an interview that Amavubi needs patience from fans as its new and young players are trying to gain confidence and composure by playing many international matches.

"We haven’t been doing well this year but I hope in a few years to come, we will be having a good national team based on young Rwandan players”

"We need time such that the young and inexperienced get that footballing touch needed at this level. As they play many matches and get used as a team, we have hope that we will play good football to satisfy fans and make everyone happy.”"We are happy for everything we have achieved this year and hopefully, we will kick off next year with much brilliance and better our performances in all our assignments,” added Haruna.

Haruna further adds that the team has changed and is optimistic Rwanda will have a good team in the future. "What makes us happy is that all we are communicating in our language (Kinyarwanda) and there is really a good atmosphere in the team and if we continue to play many international matches, we will make Rwandans proud one day,”

Rwanda suffered a 0-1 loss to Angola courtesy of a first half strike from Mingo Bile following a defensive error. Amavubi returned back stronger in the second half but despite many goal attempts, Angola held stronger to deny the visitors an equaliser.