Eagles Arrive Kigali Today
The Super Eagles squad will arrive in Kigali, Rwanda – Zimbabwe’s adopted home – in the early hours of Saturday for their matchday two encounter against the Warriors.
The delegation of players and officials travelled to East Africa aboard a chartered aircraft that departed from the Victor Attah International Airport Friday night and is expected to touch down in Kigali at dawn, before a two-hour road trip to Butare, the city where the match venue (Huye Stadium) is located.
The 20,000-capacity Huye Stadium has an artificial turf but the Eagles have voiced a collective decision not to be bothered about the playing turf as they seek the maximum three points.
After a 1-1 draw with Lesotho’s Crocodiles in Uyo on Thursday evening, Jose Peseiro and his charges are committed to facing the remaining nine matches of the qualification series with a much stronger mentality, with victory in each match the only option.
With Rwanda on the high-altitude plane, it was decided that the Eagles fly into the country, have their official training session and play the match before the unfamiliar climate began to take its toll.
The Warriors, who played out a 1-1 draw with Rwanda in their matchday one fixture, have been training on the artificial turf of the Huye Stadium since arriving in Rwanda at the weekend and faced the home team on the same turf.
The Eagles and the Warriors will clash at the Huye Stadium from 3 pm Rwanda time (1 pm Nigeria). Victory on Sunday will take the Super Eagles to four points with the campaign one-fifth of the way gone.
Souleiman Ahmed Djama from Djibouti will be the referee, to be assisted by his countrymen Liban Abdoulrazack Ahmed (assistant referee 1), Rachid Waiss Bouraleh (assistant referee 2) and Mohamed Diraneh Guedi (fourth official).
Yohannes Ghirmai Ghebregziabher from Eritrea will be in the role of referee assessor and Raphael Lyson Humba from Malawi will be the match commissioner.
