Amavubi take CHAN preparations to Tunisia

THE national football team (Amavubi) will hold a ten-day training camp in Tunisia in preparation for the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) finals that will be held in Morocco from January 12 to February 4. Rwanda Football Federation (FERWAFA) president Vincent Nzamwita confirmed to Times Sport that the camp will run from January 2 to 11 Amavubi will play two warm-up games in Tunisia before connecting to Morocco. The 23-man Amavubi squad without the foreign-based players will regroup on January 1 before travelling to Tunisia the next day. Head coach Antoine Hey said that, “This is yet another good opportunity to get the players together on the training pitch and to build on previous work. It was important that we organise this camp to address a couple of issues moving forward.” Rwanda will slug it out against Libya, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea in Group C that will be based in Tangier. Group B, which is the closest thing to the group of death, comprises Ivory Coast, Zambia, Uganda and Namibia; they will play the group matches in Marrakech. Group A in Casablanca, includes; hosts Morocco, Sudan, Mauritania and Guinea, while Group D has Angola, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Congo Brazzaville, the games will be staged in Agadir. The intensified preparations come ahead of the Amavubi exit from the ongoing CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup in Kenya. Hey’s team suffered two back-to-back defeats against hosts Kenya 2-0 and Zanzibar 3-1 before drawing goalless against Libya. Rwanda’s only victory came against Tanzania (2-1). Rwanda qualified for CHAN 2018 after beating Ethiopia 3-2 on goal aggregate in two legs. This is the country’s third appearance at CHAN finals since its inception in 2009. CHAN is a competition which gathers exclusively players featuring in the national championships of their respective countries. Rwanda took part in the 2011 edition held in Sudan, managing a group stage finish before hosting the 2016 edition where they reached the quarter final round, losing to eventual winners DR Congo. However, DR Congo will not be able to defend their title as they lost the qualification bid to Congo Brazzaville. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Amavubi take CHAN preparations to Tunisia