Supremacy battle

Today Rwanda v Burundi Kenya v Tanzania Eritrea v Uganda Libya v Tunisia Gambia v Mauritania Ghana v Niger Togo v Benin Central Africa Rep. v Gabon Congo v Chad Malawi v Mozambique Swaziland v Zambia Amavubi Stars will be hoping for nothing less than a win when they take on neighbors Burundi’s Intamba ku Rugamba in the preliminary round of the inaugural African Nations Championships (CHAN) this afternoon at Nyamirambo stadium. The Wasps have trained a great deal for this first leg tie for the past ten days are determined to record straight victory, convincingly if possible with the return leg to be played in a fortnights’ time in mind. “We have trained well enough despite the little time we had and I’m convinced this team can win tomorrow’s game (today) convincingly,” acting head coach Jean Marie Ntagwabira told Times Sport yesterday after the Stars’ last training session. Back to Rwanda’s opponents, Burundi arrived in the country on Friday ahead of today’s game with a youthful side hoping to get a good result before the return leg in their backyard. The last time the two teams met in an international friendly played in Bujumbura back in February, the game end 0-0.Burundi under Algerian born coach Adel Amrouche reached semifinals of last year’s Cecafa senior challenge cup held in Tanzania only to lose to Uganda Cranes 2-0. And you can go back to 32 years ago for the last time Burundi defeated Rwanda in an international meeting, that game in Bujumbura ended 6-2. However, Burundi can be boosted by their superior Fifa ranking of 112 compared to their opponents who are ranked three places below. Three years ago, Rwanda beat Burundi 2-0 in the group stages of the Cecafa senior challenge held here in Kigali. Amavubi were beaten in the final 1-0 by Ethiopia. African Nations Championships (CHAN), the latest addition to the tall list of the competitions organized by Confederation of African Football (CAF) is exclusively open to players playing in the national championships of their respective countries. The participating countries are drawn into six zones based on their geographical location, with one team qualifying from each zone for the finals with the exception of Southern Zone – two teams. With Amavubi Stars battling Burundi in Kigali, Kenya face Tanzania and Eritrea battle Uganda all in the Central-East Zone. Elsewhere, 19 countries will be involved in the preliminary rounds of the competition, which was launched during the 30th CAF General Assembly early this year, in Accra, Ghana. Meanwhile, 16 countries have drawn a bye from the preliminaries and will be involved in action from the first round. They are Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, Guinea, DR Congo, Sudan, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Namibia, South Africa, Mauritius and Zimbabwe. Cote d’Ivoire has qualified automatically as host of the first edition, scheduled for February 22 – March 8, 2009. Ends