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Rwanda’s goalkeeper  Jean Luc Ndayishimiye  was the hero for Amavubi when he saved two penalties in a 4-3 shootout win against Congo Brazzaville after a 2-2 outcome on aggregate in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Saturday afternoon.

The Amavubi custodian sunk to his left to save Dore Ferebory’s shot in the first set of penalties before making an excellent stop from Hermann Lakolop in the second set much to the jubilation of the Rwandan fans at the Kigali Regional stadium.

Substitutes James Tubane and Jimmy Mbaraga as well as Emery Bayisenge converted from the spot in the first set of penalties with striker Meddie Kagere and captain Haruna Niyonzima failing to live up to the occasion.

Congo Brazzaville’s Chansel Delvin Ndinga, Silver Mboussi Ganvoula and Thiery Bifouma Koulossa scored past Ndayishimiye, however, Ferebory’s miss and Francis Mael Lepicier’s shot on the woodwork forced a 3-3 stalemate.

In the second set of penalties, Lakolop’s shot was saved to give hope to the hosts.

The weight of scoring the winning goal fell on substitute Patrick Sibomana who put the ball past Congo Brazzaville’s goalkeeper Chansel Mohikola Massa to see Rwanda progress to the AFCON group stage qualifiers.

Rwanda’s head coach Stephen Constantine revealed that, “I was thinking about Louis van Gaal when I made the substitutes though I wasn’t going to replace the goalkeeper. We put players who are used to taking penalties. We are lucky that all the three substitutes scored their penalties.”

“This is huge. Nobody gave us a chance against Libya and I give this to the players. It is fantastic for Rwanda. We told the strikers, they need to put pressure on the back four of Congo Brazzaville and they did and we scored twice,” said the former Malawi and Sudan coach.

The Amavubi were trailing 2-0 after the first leg in Pointe Noir a fortnight ago, however, striker Michel Ndahinduka opened the scoring for the hosts in the 51st minute before Meddie Kagere netted a second five minutes to level the aggregate 2-2.

Rwanda now joins the continental champions Nigeria, South Africa and Sudan in Group A in the last round of qualification for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations that will be hosted in Morocco.

The Amavubi have only made one appearance at the continental showpiece once in 2004 in Tunisia.

Collins Okinyo

Ex- CAF Media Expert. An expert on African football with over 15 years experience ,always with an ear to the ground with indepth knowledge of the game. I have worked for top publications including 7 years at www.supersport.com until i founded www.soka25east.com to quench the thirst of football lovers across the continent. I have trained young upcoming journalists who are now a voice in African football.I have covered World Cup,AFCON,CHAN,Champions League,Confederations Cup,Cecafa,Cosafa,Wafu and many other football tournaments across the World. Founder Football Africa Arena(FAA),Founder www.afrisportdigital.com