CAF picks South African referee for Yanga-Rivers United match
Young Africans (Yanga) players during the past training session. The team leave the country today for Nigeria ahead of their CAF Confederation Cup match against Rivers United. The encounter is scheduled to take place on Sunday at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium and will kickoff at 4pm Tanzanian time. PHOTO | LOVENESS BERNARD
According to CAF, Tom will be assisted by Ivanildo Meirelles of Angola and Miro Montenegro of Sao Tome and Principe and the fourth official will be Djindo Houngnandande of Benin.
As per records, Houngnandande will be officiating Yanga for the second time after he did in the encounter against US Monastir of Tunisia in the group stage. The Jangwani Street giants will be seeking revenge against Rivers United, who, in the 2021 CAF Champions League matches, eliminated Yanga on 2-0 goal aggregates in the preliminary round. In their first leg, Yanga lost 1-0 at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium and in the second leg they also lost with the same margin.
However, Yanga have put up an impressive performance recently to the extent of managing to finish at the top of the group D standings.
The improved side of Jangwani Street managed to win over one of the African giants in the game, TP Mazembe, who lost both matches. They won 3-1 at the home venue and later 1-0 in Lubumbashi. In the group, Yanga lost 2-0, the only match to concede against Tunisian side US Monastir, but they did well in their three away encounters. They recorded a 1-1 draw against Real Bamako and later won 1-0 over TP Mazembe.
Yanga assistant head coach Cedric Kaze said they are taking the encounter seriously and they do not underestimate their opponents.
“Our target is to do well and we respect all the teams that have qualified for the stage. We will make sure we do well,” insisted Kaze.
He expressed that they will prepare the team accordingly, saying that Rivers United have changed and are not the same team they met in 2021.
The Nigerian side currently placed second in Nigeria’s top flight league with 19 points from 10 matches and have improved to outplace famous teams such as Enyimba, Kwara United and others to win the title in the 2021/2022 season.
Since their establishment in 2016, Rivers United have managed to qualify for the group stage of the CAF Champions League twice and in the 2017 season they reached the first round before qualifying for the second round in the 2022 edition.
In the CAF Confederation Cup, Rivers managed to enter the group stage in 2017 before qualifying for playoffs in the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 seasons respectively.
