{"id":110312,"date":"2025-09-18T14:02:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T14:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/caf-cc-lotfi-optimistic-as-rayon-welcome-singida-big-stars"},"modified":"2025-09-18T14:17:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T14:17:24","slug":"caf-cc-lotfi-optimistic-as-rayon-welcome-singida-big-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/caf-cc-lotfi-optimistic-as-rayon-welcome-singida-big-stars","title":{"rendered":"CAF CC: Lotfi optimistic as Rayon welcome Singida Big Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Rayon Sports head coach Lotfi Afahmia has said that his team will be ready for Tanzania\u2019s Singida Big Stars when the two sides square off in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup first round at Kigali Pele Stadium on Saturday, September 20.<\/p>\n<p>Singida arrived in Kigali on Wednesday, just two days after winning the CECAFA Kagame Cup that concluded in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. They lifted their very first trophy in the tournament after beating Ali Hilal SC 2-1 in the final.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues are also in high spirits after a bright start to the Rwanda Premier League with a 2-0 win over Kiyovu SC on over the weekend and club coach Lotfi confidently said that his men will be ready to maintain the momentum during Saturday\u2019s clash.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I believe we have a strong squad which can get a good result away from home. Our goal is to get a good result in first leg before return leg. Singida are a strong side, we have tried to watch some of their clips and matches and we are ready for the challenge,\u201d said Lotfi.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our preparations have gone pretty well and the mood is great among the players, avoiding an away goal from the visitors is our top priority, but keeping a clean sheet is vital to help us finish the job in the second leg away,\u201d Afahmia.<\/p>\n<p>Rayon have been training at Nzove training ground without star defender Emery Bayisenge who is sidelined through an injury he sustained during a friendly match against Ugandan side Vipers a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n<p>He is expected to miss Singida clash just like Muhamed Chelly, Fall Ngagne , and Youssou Diagne who are all out injured.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Singida will be counting on the services of Zambian star striker Clatous Chota Chama and Ugandan defensive midfielder Khalid Aucho who both signed from Young Africans.<\/p>\n<p>Chama has been in fine form throughout the CECAFA campaign where he scored both goals that won Singida the CECAFA Kagame Cup trophy.<\/p>\n<p>Kick-off time: 6PM<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Rwanda<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. Rayon Sports head coach Lotfi Afahmia has said that his team will be ready for Tanzania\u2019s Singida Big Stars when the two sides square off in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup first round at Kigali Pele Stadium on Saturday, September 20. Singida arrived in Kigali on Wednesday, just two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":110311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[3608,2676,758,4448],"class_list":["post-110312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-kigali-pele-stadium","tag-rayon-sports","tag-rwanda","tag-singida-big-stars"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>CAF CC: Lotfi optimistic as Rayon welcome Singida Big Stars - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rayon Sports head coach Lotfi Afahmia has said that his team will be ready for Tanzania\u2019s Singida Big Stars when the two ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/caf-cc-lotfi-optimistic-as-rayon-welcome-singida-big-stars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CAF CC: Lotfi optimistic as Rayon welcome Singida Big Stars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rayon Sports head coach Lotfi Afahmia has said that his team will be ready for Tanzania\u2019s Singida Big Stars when the two ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/caf-cc-lotfi-optimistic-as-rayon-welcome-singida-big-stars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-18T14:02:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-18T14:17:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/09\/sm_1758192381.45847.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"593\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/caf-cc-lotfi-optimistic-as-rayon-welcome-singida-big-stars#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/caf-cc-lotfi-optimistic-as-rayon-welcome-singida-big-stars\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"CAF CC: Lotfi optimistic as Rayon welcome Singida Big Stars\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-18T14:02:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-18T14:17:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/caf-cc-lotfi-optimistic-as-rayon-welcome-singida-big-stars\"},\"wordCount\":358,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/caf-cc-lotfi-optimistic-as-rayon-welcome-singida-big-stars#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/09\/sm_1758192381.45847.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Kigali Pele Stadium\",\"Rayon Sports\",\"Rwanda\",\"Singida Big Stars\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/caf-cc-lotfi-optimistic-as-rayon-welcome-singida-big-stars#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/caf-cc-lotfi-optimistic-as-rayon-welcome-singida-big-stars\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/caf-cc-lotfi-optimistic-as-rayon-welcome-singida-big-stars\",\"name\":\"CAF CC: Lotfi optimistic as Rayon welcome Singida Big Stars - 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