Rwandan side, Police booked a place in the quarter finals of the 2014 CECAFA-Kagame Cup tournament after thrashing defending champions, Vital’O of Burundi 3-1 on Monday at the Kigali Regional stadium.
Goals from Jerome Sina, Jacques Tuyisenge and Jimmy Mbaraga were enough to earn a last eight slot for the ‘Law and Order enforcers’ who are making their debut in the regional club tournament.
Sina scored on the half-hour mark following a good exchange with Tuyisenge and slot past Vital’O goalie Andre Mazimpaka.
Ten minutes later, a poor goal keeping blunder gifted Vital’O the equalizer courtesy a Shaban Hussein header.
Striker Tuyisenge doubled the lead in the 44th minute with a superb header from Peter Kagabo’s corner to go into recess with the upper-hand.
On 69 minutes, Jimmy Mbaraga headed home from Mwemere Girinshuti’s free-kick to seal victory in the Group B clash. The Rwandans have the maximum six points from two games. They beat Sudanese giants, El Merreikh 1-0 in their opening game on Saturday.
In the other Group C game, Merreikh registered a 4-0 win to dump Somalia’s Benadir FC out of the tournament. Allan Wanga, Ahmed Elbasha, Serge Wawa and Mohamed Traore scored all the crucial goals past a disjointed Banadir to rekindle their worn hopes of advancing in the competitions.
Benadir, perched at the bottom of the standings have thus conceded nine goals in two matches following a 1-5 loss to Vital ‘O’ in the opening match.
A win for El Merreikh in Friday’s tough match against Vital’O will guarantee them a place in the quarters. Both are tied on three points but the latter have a better goal difference.
In Group B, Gor Mahia’s hope of progressing to the next round suffered a huge blow after they lost their second game of the tournament.
New Harambee Stars coach, Bobby Williamson’s side conceded 1-0 to Burundian side, Atletico courtesy Alexis Kitenge Hakizimana, who beat an offside trap to slot a sharp ball past deserted goal keeper Jerim Onyango.
Gor Mahia who lost the opening game 1-2 against Uganda’s KCCA lie bottom of the standings with no point and find themselves with an uphill task of ensuring a must win in their two remaining fixtures against Djibouti’s Telecom and three-time winners APR FC to stand a chance of progressing to the knock-out round.
A win for Atletico means that four teams now are tied on three points with two games besides APR FC which has played a game less. Telecom leads the group on goals scored followed by APR FC, KCCA and Atletico FC.
On Tuesday, only two matches from Group A and B will be played again at Kigali Regional Stadium. Zanzibar’s KMKM face Ethiopia’s Adama City at 3pm whilst Tanzania’s Azam FC takes on South Sudan’s Atlabara later at5pm.
Monday Results
Gor Mahia 0-1 Atletico
El Merreikh 4-0 Benadir
Police 3–1 Vital’O
Tuesday fixtures
KMKM vs. Adama City
Azam vs. Atlabara
Confederation of African Football (CAF) News
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