July 14, first legEthiopia  vs Rwanda

AFTER a busy 2014 World Cup schedule, the national team has started intensive preparations ahead of the 2014 CHAN qualifying first leg match against Ethiopia on July 14 in Addis Ababa.

Under the guidance of head coach Eric Nshimiyimana, the team is holding their daily training sessions together with the Under-20 team which is also preparing for this year’s Francophone Games set to be held in France in September.

Nshimiyimana, who was left with a few players when APR and Rayon Sports went to Sudan for Cecafa Kagame Cup, decided to link the available players with the Junior wasps such that both teams can collectively train together.

This weekend, the Amavubi team will enter into residential camp in a yet to be known location though Nshimiyimana preferred to use Gicumbi District as his training base.

"We are yet to know where we will be holding our final training sessions but I want to take the team to Gicumbi but the final decision is yet to be reached,” he told Times Sport by phone on Wednesday.

"The few players available have been training together with the Under 20 team and we will move to residential camp after welcoming back APR and Rayon Sports players,” added the former Rwandan international midfielder.

Rwanda were drawn to play the Walya Antelopes of Ethiopia in the Central-East zone and the aggregate winner over the two legs will join other qualifying nations from North and West A zones (3 each), West B, Central, Central-East and Southern zones (3 each) and the host nation to make it 16 nations in the third edition.

Having qualified for the 2011 CHAN event, the Amavubi will not be taking anything to chance as they will be all out to try and eliminate the Ethiopians, who last week had three 2014 World Cup qualifying points canceled by Fifa for using an ineligible player in the match against Botswana.

Rwanda will need to work hard to record a high scoring victory in the first leg ahead of the home clash at Amahoro stadium.

Meanwhile, Ghana has qualified for the finals in South Africa next year after their opponents Benin withdrew from the final qualifier.