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Sadio Mane's side Lions of Teranga to face Rwanda on Tuesday

Senegalese team training   -  
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AP Photo

Sadio Mané

Sadio Mane’s side, the Lions of Teranga will meet Rwanda on Tuesday at the Diamniadio Olympic Stadium.

Rwanda have not qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations since 2004 and will be up against a Senegal side that won the most recent edition of the competition in February of this year.

Rwanda drew 1-1 with hosts Mozambique in their opening game of the qualifying phase last Thursday.

Senegal, meanwhile, made a victorious start to their campaign on Saturday, with Liverpool's Sadio Mane grabbing a hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Benin.

"When we look at the features of this game, we can imagine that Senegal is superior but we are at the end of the season and our bodies are tired. At the end of the last game (3-1 against Benin last Saturday), I felt that my players were tired, so it is up to us to approach this game with a lot of professionalism, rigor and humility and above all the confidence and ambition that we have given ourselves since the beginning. That is to say, to win our games every time we are on the field and to get the best result possible," said Aliou Cisse, Senegal's head coach.

Rwanda has been training hard in recent days to position itself as title contender.

Carlos Alos, Rwanda's head coach said his focus will be directed to all opponent players but not Sadio Mane alone.

"We have to focus (on) all the team in Senegal. Senegal is one very strong team, as I (said) before. One of the best in the world probably. It is one of the best, in Africa and one of the best in the world. It's not only for (Sadio) Mane, it's because they have a good team and good players in general. So we have to focus (on) all the team, not (on) one player," he said.