Rivers United vow to roast Rayon Sports for Easter

TOTAL CAF Confederation Cup
Nigeria’s only surviving team in the CAF Confederation Cup, Rivers United of Port Harcourt, has promised to beat visiting Rayon Sports of Rwanda in today’s first leg of their play-off tie at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium. The Rivers side want the victory to serve as Easter gift for its teaming fans.

Rayon Sports of Rwanda, an attack-minded side will approach today’s game with some key players missing from the squad. Top striker, Shassir Nahimana, who has been instrumental in their progress from the first round, will miss the match as he is nursing an ailment. Ange Mutsinzi, who is also a key player, did not travel to Nigeria as he is serving his second match suspension following a red card in the return leg against Al Wau Sallam of South Sudan.

Players and officials of Rivers United yesterday vowed to roast the visitors so as to make the return leg on April 22 at Stade Amahoro in Kigali a mere formality. The winner of that tie will proceed to the lucrative group stages.

Rivers United Technical manager, Stanley Eguma said yesterday that having lost out from the CAF Champions League, “it is important to finally get back to winning ways as this will help build confidence.

“Now, we will try to get a good result against Rayon Sports who are a very good side,” he told the club’s official website, www.riversunitedfc.com.ng.

“We have suffered so much in the past months but as an extremely experienced coach, I know that football is like life; it is full of ups and down.”

Head coach of Rayon Sports, Masudi Djuma is however optimistic of his side’s progress to the group stage but the Burundian tactician knows the importance of claiming a positive result in today’s encounter.