Advantage Esperance in African final
CASABLANCA (AFP) - The odds tilted toward Esperance of Tunisia winning the African Champions League after forcing a 0-0 draw at Wydad Casablanca of Morocco Sunday in the first leg of the final.
Esperance host the return match at the 60,000-seat November 7 Stadium on the outskirts of Tunis next Saturday with 1.5 million dollars going to the winners plus a place in the even more lucrative FIFA Club World Cup to be hosted by Japan during December.
It is the third time the clubs have drawn in the competition this season with Wydad coming from two goals down at home to force a 2-2 draw last August and there were no goals when they clashed again two weeks later.
Although the Tunisian 'Blood and Gold' will be thrilled to have survived 90 minutes in the 70,000-capacity Mohanmmed V Stadium cauldron without conceding a goal, Esperance did likewise in the 1999 final against Raja Casablanca only to lose the final on penalties.
Wydad were the superior side during the first half with defender Yassine Rami and joint leading scorer Fabrice Ondama from Congo Brazzaville going close to ending the stalemate as Esperance regularly had to backpedal.
But the clash of clubs who won the premier Pan-African club competition once each during the 1990s turned in the closing stages with the visitors pressing for an away goal and Mejdi Traoui and Khaled Mouelhi were not far off target.
© 2011 AFP