Kigali — Sellas Tetteh is a man under no pressure to produce instant success with the Rwanda national senior football side, the Amavubi Stars.

       Even with Saturday's 3-0 reverse against Ivory Coast (away) in the first Group H qualifier for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, no one can start to think of pressing the panic button.

       Amavubi Stars fans so much well-known for being trigger-happy when it comes to pressing the panic button when the coach isn't bringing instant success.

        But unlike most, if not all his predecessors, Tetteh seems to command more respect from his bosses and the Rwandan football fraternity at large, which means he can afford to lose a game, like last evening's 3-0 defeat and still gets the benefit of doubt from most Rwandans.

         Yes, the Fifa U-20 World Cup winning coach is under no elusions that he must do well and well is contracted to do, so the sooner the better for both parties but most his own good.

         After what he has achieved with his home teams back in Ghana for club and country albeit at the junior level, Tetteh wouldn't want to tarnish his impressive CV with a letter of dismissal for having failed to meet what is required of him as per the contract.

       However, drawing Ivory Coast was itself alone bad news but to face them in the first game, and away from home, made Rwanda's start to their qualifying campaign quite a hurdle, and so it proved to be as the Elephants cruised home with first half goals from Yaya Toure, Solomon Kalou and Emmanuel Eboue.

       Tetteh's youthful side must have developed goose pimples with the reality of facing some of the top players not only in Africa but in the world, and the score-line (3-0) after half an hour didn't send good signals back at home for the visitors. At half time, many back in Rwanda feared for the worst, but it didn't come to that.

        Even without Didier Drogba but coming against the Toure brothers, Yaya and Colo, both of Manchester City in England, Didier Zokora (Seville), Kalou (Chelsea), Gervinho (Lille) away from home, was always going to be a daunting test for Rwanda's youngsters, most of whom were making their first international appearance away from home.

       Ivory Coast, ranked 26 in the world, are favourites to top Group H, leaving Rwanda to battle it out with Benin and Burundi for second place. The 11 group winners and three best second-placed teams will be joined by the two co-hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea at the finals.

       After the defeat on Saturday and regardless of the outcome of today's other group match between Benin and Burundi (in Benin), Rwanda not only needs, but must win their next qualifier at home against Benin next month to even have an outside chance of finishing among the top two.

       Benin, ranked 61 in the world will be favourites against Burundi, who are the worst ranked team in the group at 141, and given their recent raise to become Africa's top teams, you wouldn't bet against them getting a result in Kigali. Rwanda is ranked 131.