ESPERANCE IN LINE FOR CLEAN-SWEEP

TUNISIAN club Esperance are in line for a unique hat-trick after qualifying at the weekend for an African Champions League final showdown against Raja Casablanca of Morocco. The Blood and Gold won the 1997 African Football Confederation (CAF) Cup and the 1998 Cup Winners Cup and victory over Raja would complete a clean sweep of Pan-African titles. Raja have home advantage at the Mohamed V Stadium in the first leg over the weekend of November 27-28 with the return match at the Al-Menzah Stadium two weeks later. Esperance topped Group 2 with 15 points from a possible 18 after a 1-0 victory over Dynamos of Zimbabwe in Tunis while Saint-Louisienne of Reunion held holders ASEC of Cote d’Ivoire 0-0 in Saint-Pierre. It was much tighter in Group 1 with Raja drawing 1-1 at home to Al-Ahly of Egypt while the match between Shooting Stars of Nigeria and Hearts of Oak of Ghana ended 2-2 in Ibadan.