OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 9.00am.
ONLY a couple of extraordinary scorelines can prevent Esperance of Tunisia reaching the African Champions League final on Saturday.
Esperance are three points ahead of ASEC of Cote d’Ivoire entering the last round of mini-league action and boast a plus-11 goal difference compared to the plus-one of the defending champions.
And while the Tunisians have home advantage over Dynamos of Zimbabwe, ASEC must travel to the French-governed Indian Ocean island of Reunion for a clash with Saint-Louisienne.
The likely scenario is a comfortable victory for Esperance at the Al-Menzah Stadium, rendering the result of the other Group 2 match in Saint-Pierre irrelevant.
Esperance are the form team, losing only once in nine knockout and group matches and even the absence of suspended goalkeeper and captain Chokri al-Ouaer is unlikely to concern the 1994 champions.
Veteran Al-Ouaer received a red card during the 1-0 away loss to ASEC last month and his place is expected to be taken by Moez Ben Thabet, who most African clubs would happily employ as a first-choice goalkeeper.
Coach Youssef Zouaoui can call on numerous Tunisian internationala plus strikers Julius Aghahowa and Edith Agoye from Nigeria and Makaya N’Silulu from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Agoye and Maher Kenzari are their leading Champions League scorers with four each, Faycal Ben Ahmed and Walid Azaiez have struck three and Ali Zitouni and Aghahowa two.
Dynamos recovered from three consecutive group losses, including a 2-0 home defeat by Esperance, to overcome ASEC 2-1 and Saint-Louisienne 7-2 with Ronald Sibanda and Kingston Rinemhota scoring hat-tricks.
However, limited finances have forced the Zimbabweans to travel with only 15 players, including two goalkeepers, which severely limits the options of new coach David George.
Saint-Louisienne opened with a 1-0 win over Dynamos before losing four games in a row and giant Cameroon striker Alain Amougou has joined South African champions Sundowns.
The final Group 1 matches on Sunday pit leaders Raja Casablanca of Morocco against second-placed Al-Ahly of Egypt and Shooting Stars of Nigeria against Hearts of Oak of Ghana. — AFP