OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 12.30pm.
RAJA Casablanca of Morocco host Esperance of Tunisia this weekend in the first leg of a dream African Champions League final.
Apart from the glory of winning the premier club competition on the continent, the winners qualify for the first world championship finals and matches against giants like Real Madrid of Spain.
Add a guaranteed $2,5-million for representing Africa, and the stage is set for a gigantic struggle between two of the oldest, most popular and most successful clubs in North Africa.
Raja are seeking to become African champions a third time in five attempts and will gain confidence from the knowledge that no Moroccan club has lost a Champions League final.
Esperance are the only club to win the “big three” — Champions League, Cup Winners Cup, CAF Cup — and are marginal favourites because of a better form en route to the final.
While Raja squeezed into the two-leg showdown after scoring only 11 goals in 10 matches and needed a penalty shootout to reach the mini-league phase, Esperance have been virtually invincible.
They won eight matches, shared six goals with Al-Hilal in Sudan, and lost by a solitary goal to defending champions ASEC in Cote d’Ivoire after long-serving goalkeeper and captain Chokri al-Ouaer was sent off.
Esperance had a berth in the final virtually booked after four of the six mini-league rounds while Raja were taken to the wire by former champions Al-Ahly of Egypt.
Only striker Mustapha Moustaoudia, a survivor from the 1997 Champions League-winning team, scored more than two goals as the Moroccan Green Devils built their success around a tight defence.
Walid Azaiez, Maher Kenzari and Nigerian Edith Agoye struck four goals each for the Blood and Gold, Faycal Ben Ahmed hit three and Ali Zitouni and another Nigerian import, Julius Aghahowa, two each.
Raja could have a slight edge on the sidelines as Argentine coach Luis Oscar Fullone knows exactly what is required to become club champions of Africa.
Fullone led ASEC to a 4-2 triumph over Dynamos of Zimbabwe in the 1998 final and after masterminding a 1-0 win over Al-Ahly in their Cairo fortress two months ago, he must believe nothing is impossible. — AFP