Ivory Coast struggle to beat Rwanda 2-0

Skipper Didier Drogba’s Ivory Coast side needed the last five minutes to beat Rwanda 2-0 in an International build-up game played on Thursday evening at the National stadium in Dar es Saalam. 

On Monday, the Ivory Coast team who leave for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations tournament today beat hosts Tanzania 1-0, courtesy of a Drogba goal.
Although Rwanda’s Amavubi were always on the back foot dealing with relentless pressure, they defended well in numbers. The most serious was when they survived a Salomon Kalou shot that was kept off by the upright in the 20th minute.
Rwanda cracked in the 85th minute when Souleyman Bamba converted with a header, the first of two goals scored in similar manner from corners.
Brou Angova got the second in the 90th minute beating Rwanda’s second choice goalkeeper Jean Luc Ndayishimiye alias Bakame.
The score line could have been a lot worse had it not been for a top notch performance from Amavubi’s first choice goalkeeper Jean Claude Ndoli in the first half. The APR shot stopper twice denied Ivory Coast’s skipper Didier Drogba and Bakary Kone.

 

Unlike in last Monday's game when Cote d’Ivoire pulled out virtually all the starters, including skipper Drogba, at the beginning of the second half, the tourists maintained almost the entire starting XI throughout the game. Apparently because of going scoreless for so long, they kept on Drogba -- a man they had indicated that he needed pretty of rest -- until the 75th minute apparently after it seemed goals would never come anyway.
Amavubi, the 2009 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup runners-up however had chances of their own but couldn’t convert them with Abbas Rassou failing to hit the target with only the keeper to beat. 
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