APR happy with Confederations Cup

APR Fc are happy with playing in Caf Confederations Cup than the more lucrative MTN Champions League next season, Times Sport has reliably learnt. After winning the 2008 MTN Peace Cup winners, the military side automatically qualified for the Confederations Cup regardless of their position in the national league. APR produced the most scintillating performance in a local football match seen in years as they made Atraco look a side divisions lower than their league position suggests. Some would suggest that maybe Atraco players played with one eye already on the league title and so they didn’t mind losing this one but with Jean-Marie Ntagwabira in charge and against APR, such proposals can’t come into the picture. But regardless of what or what didn’t transpire, Ntagwabira and his team were beaten by a surprisingly superior APR side that had everything good thing go their way on Friday in front of a mammoth crowd inside Nyamirambo stadium that included President Kagame on the 14th liberation anniversary. It goes without saying that Rene Feller and his team were hungrier for this cup than their opponents because of the situation in the league which, if all factors remain constant in the remaining three fixtures, favors Atraco. It is by no surprise that the APR camp was more excited about this particular cup triumph than the two they had won in the last two years or the seven since 1995. And it was in that heat of the moment that some club officials revealed how their target for this season was to win the Peace Cup thereby playing the Confederations Cup than the Champions League next season. Let’s try our luck there According to the club officials, the Confederations Cup offers the club a more realistic chance of reaching the later stages than the more lucrative Champions League. “We’re building a team for the future and we find better to play in the Confederations Cup than in the Champions League. “In the Confederations Cup, we stand more chances of reaching the group stages and once we get there, who knows where we end up,” wondered the team manager Capt. Eric Ntazinda. APR has never qualified for the group stages of any of two continental championships before, the closest they came was in 2004 when they were eliminated by Ivory Coast’s African Sport at the third and final preliminary round. Other club officials with whom Times Sport talked to after Friday’s majestic win, also admitted that after all the years of failure in the Champions League, it’s high time the club tried its luck in the Confederations Cup. Feller wants a double Despite most club officials including the top hierarchy, according to reliable sources, preferring to play in the less competitive Confederations Cup, the man in charge of bringing that to the field has other ideas. “We want win every match we play and that includes league matches. At the moment, we are four points behind Atraco but that doesn’t mean that we shall give up the fight. “Our target is to not only to win the remaining matches but to do it while playing good football that people can enjoy. The team with the most points will win the league,” the Dutchman said in an interview. Ends

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APR happy with Confederations Cup