Zamalek travel to Kigali to face APR FC in the first leg of the CAF Champions League's second preliminary round on Friday, 16 October, at Amahoro Stadium. Africa Soccer and YS Scores both give a 17:00 kickoff in Kigali, which is 18:00 in Cairo, while beIN Sports' own match listing instead times the game for 16:00 UTC, equivalent to 18:00 in Kigali and 19:00 in Cairo. CAF's own match centre could not be reached to settle the hour, so the differing figures are reported here rather than resolved to one. Rwanda does not change its clocks for the season, so the one-hour gap between Kigali and Cairo holds throughout the tie regardless of which kickoff hour proves correct.
The winner over two legs advances to the group stage of this season's competition, which this year is drawing its 16 group-stage places from 61 entrants across two preliminary rounds, according to the competition's qualifying-round structure and a CAF announcement of the draw.
Zamalek reached this round by eliminating AS Port of Djibouti 6-1 on aggregate; Africa Soccer reported that both legs were played in Cairo, with Zamalek winning the first 2-1 before completing the tie with a 4-0 win in the second. APR advanced by beating Aigles du Congo, as CAF's own draw announcement names the Congolese club, 3-1 on aggregate, Africa Soccer reported.
Zamalek enter the tie as Egypt's 2025-26 Premier League champions, while APR are Rwanda's 2025-26 Premier League champions, according to Africa Soccer.
Zamalek's first team left Cairo on the evening of Monday, 12 October, heading to Kigali, with the delegation arriving in the Rwandan capital in the early hours of Tuesday, 13 October, according to YS Scores, giving the squad several days in Kigali before the match.
The second leg is scheduled for Saturday, 24 October, at Cairo International Stadium, with kickoff set for 20:00, according to Africa Soccer. The 75,000-capacity stadium, completed in 1960, has hosted the 2006 and 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and is regarded as the home of Egypt's biggest matches, according to Wikipedia's entry on the venue.
This season's qualifying path began with 58 clubs in the first preliminary round, while three higher-ranked clubs received byes straight into the second preliminary round that Zamalek and APR are now contesting, according to the competition's qualifying-round structure. Both legs of every preliminary-round tie are played home and away before the 16 surviving clubs move into the group stage.
Neither club has named a confirmed starting line-up for Friday's match, and no broadcaster or ticketing details for the first leg were included in the club or federation announcements reviewed for this report.
Zamalek are five-time winners of the CAF Champions League, lifting the title in 1984, 1986, 1993, 1996 and 2002, and have reached the competition's group phase 13 times, according to the club's list of honours on Wikipedia. They have also won the CAF Confederation Cup twice, in 2018-19 and 2023-24, and the CAF Super Cup five times, the same source says.
APR FC present a different kind of continental record. Founded in June 1993 as the team of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and now run by the Rwanda Defence Force, the club has entered the CAF Champions League in most seasons since 1997 without ever reaching the group stage, according to Wikipedia's entry on the club, whose list of APR's campaigns runs only through a second-round finish in 2023 and does not reflect the club's more recent entries. Their best run in the competition remains a third-round finish in 2004, the same source says. In the club's most recently completed campaign, the 2025-26 edition, APR were eliminated in the qualifying rounds by Egypt's Pyramids FC, according to SuperSport, making Friday's tie another attempt to push past a group-stage ceiling the Rwandan champions have not yet broken.
The second preliminary round also includes three clubs that were given byes straight into this stage: defending CAF Champions League holders Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa, Esperance of Tunisia and RS Berkane of Morocco, according to a CAF report on the season's opening rounds. Those three ties, like the Zamalek-APR tie, have first legs in the 16-18 October window and return legs from 23 to 25 October, CAF said.
Beyond the group stage, the 2026-27 CAF Champions League moves into a two-legged knockout phase of quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final, according to the competition's qualifying-round structure. The group stage itself runs across six matchdays between late November 2026 and late January 2027, meaning whichever club advances from Friday's tie has roughly six weeks to prepare before that phase begins.
CAF, the body running the competition, is itself headquartered in Egypt, in 6th of October City, Giza, having moved there from Khartoum, Sudan, after a fire at the Sudanese Football Association's offices, according to Wikipedia's entry on the confederation.
Frequently asked questions
When and where is Zamalek vs APR FC?
Reports differ by an hour. Africa Soccer and YS Scores give a 17:00 local kickoff in Kigali (18:00 in Cairo) at Amahoro Stadium, Rwanda, on Friday, 16 October; beIN Sports' own match listing instead gives 18:00 in Kigali (19:00 in Cairo).
What is at stake in this tie?
The winner over two legs advances to the group stage of the 2026-27 CAF Champions League, one of 16 places drawn from 61 entrants across two preliminary rounds.
How did Zamalek and APR reach this round?
Zamalek eliminated AS Port of Djibouti 6-1 on aggregate, with both legs played in Cairo, and APR eliminated Aigles du Congo 3-1 on aggregate, according to Africa Soccer.
When is the second leg?
The return leg is scheduled for Saturday, 24 October, at Cairo International Stadium, with kickoff set for 20:00, according to Africa Soccer.
What round of the CAF Champions League comes after the group stage?
A two-legged knockout phase of quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final, following a group stage scheduled to run from late November 2026 to late January 2027, according to the competition's qualifying-round structure.
Where is CAF, the organiser of the competition, based?
CAF is headquartered in 6th of October City, Giza, Egypt, having relocated there from Khartoum, Sudan, after a fire at the Sudanese Football Association's offices, according to Wikipedia's entry on the confederation.
