Venue : Rades Olympique Stadium
Time : 7 pm, Saturday May 18th
Referees
• Mustpha Gorbal- main Referee, Algeria
• Mokrane Gourari- Assistant 1, Algeria
•Abbes Akram Zerhouni- Assistant 2, Algeria
The first leg of the CAF Champions League will be played in Tunisia with Esperance Sportive de Tunis hosting the defending champions, Al Ahly.
Both teams have enjoyed a wonderful campaign after brushing aside difficult opponents.
A fierce encounter is expected in Rades in the first leg with the Tunisians ready to take a huge advantage of their incredible home performance.
Esperance Sportive de Tunis Road to finals
Since taking over in January, the Portuguese head coach has transformed Esperance Sportive de Tunis as it has all been down to him after finding the right balance for the team that was struggling in the beginning of the season.
Esperance has had a great success in the CCL except the 3-1 defeat in Tanzania against Sudanese giants Al Hilal. It was a great campaign for the Tunisians in Group C after finishing second to Petro Luanda. The Tunisian side conceded in only one game in the group stage. In the quarter finals, Esperance Sportive de Tunis kept their composure and won on penalties in Abidjan against Asec Mimosas after 0-0 on aggregate. In the semi-finals, Esperance beat one of the overwhelming favourites of the competition, Mamelodi Sundowns home and away to record a 2-0 aggregate win. The Tunisians have kept 9 clean sheets in the 10 games played since the group stage.
Al Ahly’s Road to the finals
The Egyptians comfortably topped Group D even after not so great a performance, per their own standard. The Egyptians won 3 games including home and away victories over Ghanaian minnows Medeama SC, drew both fixtures against Belouizdad of Algeria and drew in Tanzania and narrowly beat Yanga in Cairo. In the quarter-finals, they showed their class by beaten Simba SC home and away. Congolese giants TP Mazembe was massacred in the second leg 3-0 in Cairo after a goalless draw in the first leg.
Head to head
Esperance v Al Ahly is one of the most played fixtures on the continent. In the 22 meetings since 2001, it was only once that they played in the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup in 2015. The other 20 fixtures have all be in the CAF Champions League.
Al Ahly has the upper hand after recording 12 victories over Esperance with six of them being away. The Tunisians have recorded just 4 wins over the Red Devils with all the four wins recorded at home. 6 games have ended in draw between the two teams.
Esperance Sportive de Tunis’ Probable line up
Esperance de Tunis head coach Miguel Cardoso has been a strong fan of solidity at the back and hence will continue with his 4-1-4-1 formation
Memmiche (GK)
Ben Ali, Meriah, Tougai, Ben Hamida (DF)
Aholou (CDM)
Chaaleli, Teka, Ghana, Yann Sasse (AMF)
Rodrigo Rodrigues (ST)
Al Ahly’s probable line up
Marcel Koller will look forward to secure at least a draw in the first leg to rely on Al Ahly’s home advantage to finish off Esperance. Expect him to field an attacking minded team.
4-3-3
Oufa Shobeir (GK)
Hanny Mohammed, Mohammed Abdelmonem, Rami Rabia, Ali Maaloul (DF)
Marwan Ateya, Emam Ashour, El Solia (MF)
Tau, Modeste, El Shahaat (FW)
Prediction
1-1
