Rwanda Defence Force Chief of Defence Staff and APR FC Honorary Vice President Gen Mubarakh Muganga has challenged the club to return from Lubumbashi with victory as the Rwandan champions launch their CAF Champions League campaign against FC Les Aigles du Congo of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Gen Muganga delivered the rallying call on Saturday night as he met APR FC players and coaches shortly before the team departed for the Democratic Republic of Congo for the first leg of the CAF Champions League first preliminary round.
With the continental campaign getting underway, Gen Muganga told the players to treat the Lubumbashi clash as a final and give everything to secure an advantage before the return leg in Kigali.
“You have a match tomorrow. For us, this game is like a final, and the victory must be secured over there in Lubumbashi. We will meet you at the airport when you return, ready to welcome you warmly for bringing pride to the club and its supporters.”
He stressed that a positive result away from home would put APR FC in a strong position ahead of the second leg.
“Make sure you perform well in the first leg because it is the key to everything. By the time we play the return leg, we should have already done our job, and we will play it with the home advantage and our supporters behind us. APR FC, victory always.”
APR FC departed Kigali early Sunday morning aboard a chartered flight to Lubumbashi, with the club adopting an unusually tight travel schedule for the continental fixture.
Rather than spending the night in Lubumbashi, the delegation is expected to travel directly from the airport to Stade Frédéric Kibassa Maliba for the match and return to Kigali immediately after the final whistle.
The club has also carried its own equipment, food and drinking water for the trip, measures intended to minimise logistical and security challenges while in the DRC.
The match, scheduled for 3 p.m., will be played behind closed doors after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) ordered that no spectators be allowed into the stadium.
That means APR FC will face its first continental test without the atmosphere of a home crowd—and away from Kigali—making the demand for a strong result even more significant.
For APR FC, the Lubumbashi encounter represents the first step in a campaign aimed at progressing through the preliminary rounds and eventually reaching the CAF Champions League group stage.
The Rwandan side will be hoping to turn Gen Muganga’s pre-match challenge into action on the pitch: win in Lubumbashi, then finish the job in Kigali.
