BUJUMBURA February 23rd (ABP) – The Lydia Ludic team sport for Africa (LLB) has been withdrawn from the Champions League by Rayon Sport of Rwanda in their second leg on Wednesday February 21, 2018 in Bujumbura.
The match took place at Prince Louis Rwagasore stadium, a stadium that was crowded because of the football amateur public of Bujumbura and the one which had come from the interior of the country. The latter believed in a victory for LLB given the result from the first leg that took place on Saturday February 10, 2018 in Kigali , the capital of Rwanda, where both teams scored one goal each.
Refereed by Tanzanian officials, the match started under pressure from LLB attackers, reinforced by midfield players including Mussa Mossi or Hadj and Mussa Harerimana or Afiz. But all those efforts were slowed down by the defense of Rayon Sport, a defense mostly supported by the defensive midfielder and captain of the team by the name of Pierre Kwizera or Pierrot, a Burundian who evolves in that team.
The Rayon Sport players, thanks to their midfield orchestrated by the same Kwizera and Shassir Nahimana, organized the game and got their qualifying goal right in the 28th minute of play through their attacker Shabani Hussen or Chabalala, another Burundian, and the score remained unchanged until the end of the first half. It was the same Chabalala who scored the equalizer goal in Kigali in the first leg.
During the second half, Rayon Sport players dominated the match, but failed to score other goals following the vigilance of LLB goalkeeper Fabien Mutombola, who was able to intervene repeatedly, stopping or deflecting to corner the balls kicked by Rwandan attackers. After the statutory time prescribed by the law, the score remained unchanged allowing the Rwandan team to qualify for the next round.
Among the Rayon Sport players, four were Burundians namely Pierre Kwizera (the captain), Shassir Nahimana, Shabani Hussen or Chabalala and Caleb Bonfils Bimenyimana. The first three are tenured at the Burundi national selection “Intamba mu rugamba”.
Regarding the cup of the African Confederation, the representative of Burundi namely Olympic Star of Muyinga has just defeated the “Etoile Filante” of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, thus obtaining its ticket for the next round.
While the two teams had separated on a blank score of zero on both sides in their first leg that took place in Bujumbura on February 10, 2018, the Burkinans lost on Wednesday February 21 at home in front of Olympic Star, being beaten by a goal to zero, a goal scored by the Olympic Star forward attacker Mr. Slim Saïdi.
The “Etoile Filante” team got a penalty but it was stopped by the Olympic Star goalkeeper. The latter took off to Burkina Faso on Monday February 19, 2018 with 18 players and a technical staff consisting of two coaches and a doctor.