Étoile du Sahel 2 – 0 Al Ahly Tripoli (2-0 on agg.) : Group stage, here we come !
By: Houssem | May 4th, 2009Nice weekend, wasn’t it ?
1. Étoile makes it to the group stage of the CAF Champions League with not much effort
2. Real 2-6 Barcelona, you had to enjoy that even if you don’t care for the spanish Liga
3. Espérance 2-3 US Monastir in the Cup semi-final, and our rivals can forget about their ridiculous quadruple idea
Not much to say about last Saturday’s game in my opinion. The lads just pulled themselves together and got the job done, with some help from Tripoli’s shaky backline and passive goalkeeper. You didn’t have to be a genious to come out with the conclusion that whenever we just keep the ball on the ground and just pass it around, we can be dangerous. I’d sincerely would like to know who tells 11 professional football players that they can produce a decent play just by catapulting the ball from defense to Sadat Bukhari. Anyway, we’re finally beginning to ged rid of that habit.
The other good news concerning the Champions League is that we’re in it with some rather easy competition compared to the last tournaments. With Al Ahly of Cairo, Coton Sport of Garoua (Cameroon) and ASEC Mimosas of Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) eliminated, our chances of bringing the cup home are higher than ever. The May 7th draw in Cairo will decide which of these 7 teams will join us in the group stage :
- Kano Pillars FC – Kano, Nigeria : qualified at Ahly’s expense after a 3-3 on aggregate, thanks to away goals
- ZESCO United FC – Ndola, Zambia
- Al Merreikh – Omdurman, Sudan : we met them in the group stage of last year’s CAF Confederation Cup
- Heartland FC – Owerri, Nigeria
- TP Mazembe – Lubumbashi, DR Congo : the strongest of the lot if you ask me, mostly thanks to the “next Samuel Eto’o”, Trésor Mputu, who became a target of many tunisian clubs after being the competitions top goalscorer in 2007.
- Monomotapa United FC – Harare, Zimbabwe
- Al Hilal – Omdurman, Sudan : Another force to be reckoned with
To be honest, I’ve never even heard of 4 out of these 7 teams, so we might be in for a little surprise in Nigeria, Zambia or Zimbabwe. The african competition safari trips are never easy, and most of the time you can consider yourself lucky if you come home with a draw. But we’re the most experienced team of that lot, and we’d better take the most of this and maybe make history again in the Club World Cup !
Category: Étoile du Sahel Team News
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