{"id":120867,"date":"2026-03-17T14:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rayon-drops-points-in-goalless-draw-with-al-merrikh"},"modified":"2026-03-17T14:48:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:48:52","slug":"rayon-drops-points-in-goalless-draw-with-al-merrikh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-drops-points-in-goalless-draw-with-al-merrikh","title":{"rendered":"Rayon Drops Points in Goalless Draw with Al-Merrikh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Rayon Sports and Al-Merrikh played out a 0\u20130 draw in an entertaining Rwanda Premier League clash on matchday 24 at Kigali Pele Stadium on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>The result dealt a blow to Rayon\u2019s hopes of closing the gap on league leaders APR FC, as they dropped to fifth place with 39 points. Al-Merrikh remain third with 45 points, level with second-placed Al-Hilal SC, while APR FC lead the table with 46 points.<\/p>\n<p>Both sides created several chances but failed to convert, with goalkeepers playing a decisive role. Rayon\u2019s Olivier Kwizera produced crucial saves, notably denying Gilles Razafimaro in the 35th minute and keeping out a long-range effort from Mohamed Gbane after the break.<\/p>\n<p>New Amavubi head coach Stephen Constantine and assistant coach Eric Nshimiyimana were watching the match from the stands, hours after dropping the shot stopper from the squad that will play the FIFA Series between March 24 and March 31.<\/p>\n<p>Rayon also had opportunities through Fall Ngagne, Paul Jesus Sindi, Aziz Basane and Richard Ndayishimiye, but Al-Merrikh goalkeeper Ladji Brahima Sanou stood firm. Ngagne came closest late on but failed to hit the target.<\/p>\n<p>The draw means Rayon have now drawn their last four matches, while Al-Merrikh extended their impressive unbeaten run to 19 games.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, Police FC Rwanda moved up to fourth place with 40 points after edging Gicumbi FC 2\u20131.<\/p>\n<p>Nigerian striker Ekieson Okorie opened the scoring early, while substitute goalkeeper Moria Iradukunda sealed victory late on, despite Police finishing with 10 men following a red card to Patience Niyongira.<\/p>\n<p>The win keeps Police firmly in the title race, six points behind leaders APR.<\/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 and Al-Merrikh played out a 0\u20130 draw in an entertaining Rwanda Premier League clash on matchday 24 at Kigali Pele Stadium on Monday night. The result dealt a blow to Rayon\u2019s hopes of closing the gap on league leaders APR FC, as they dropped to fifth place with 39 points. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":120866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[8984,2676,758,3314],"class_list":["post-120867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-al-merrikh-2","tag-rayon-sports","tag-rwanda","tag-rwanda-premier-league"],"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>Rayon Drops Points in Goalless Draw with Al-Merrikh - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rayon Sports and Al-Merrikh played out a 0\u20130 draw in an entertaining Rwanda Premier League clash on matchday 24 at Kigal ...\" \/>\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\/rayon-drops-points-in-goalless-draw-with-al-merrikh\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rayon Drops Points in Goalless Draw with Al-Merrikh\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rayon Sports and Al-Merrikh played out a 0\u20130 draw in an entertaining Rwanda Premier League clash on matchday 24 at Kigal ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-drops-points-in-goalless-draw-with-al-merrikh\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T14:33:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T14:48:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/03\/sm_1773746299.691389.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"666\" \/>\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\/rayon-drops-points-in-goalless-draw-with-al-merrikh#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-drops-points-in-goalless-draw-with-al-merrikh\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Rayon Drops Points in Goalless Draw with Al-Merrikh\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-17T14:33:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-17T14:48:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-drops-points-in-goalless-draw-with-al-merrikh\"},\"wordCount\":279,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-drops-points-in-goalless-draw-with-al-merrikh#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2026\/03\/sm_1773746299.691389.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"AL MERRIKH\",\"Rayon Sports\",\"Rwanda\",\"Rwanda Premier League\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-drops-points-in-goalless-draw-with-al-merrikh#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-drops-points-in-goalless-draw-with-al-merrikh\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rayon-drops-points-in-goalless-draw-with-al-merrikh\",\"name\":\"Rayon Drops Points in Goalless Draw with Al-Merrikh - 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