 Ali Zitouni scored for Esperance against fellow Tunisian Sfaxien |
Esperance grabbed all three points, with a 1-0 win, over fellow Tunisians Sfaxien, in the Arab Champions League. The match in Kairouan turned into a bad tempered affair with Iraqi referee Issa Hazem struggling to stay in control, both sides finished the game with 10 men.
First to be given his marching orders was Sfaxien's Amir Moussaoud after a rough challenge on Skander Souayah in the 33rd minute.
The only goal of the game came just before the break when Ali Zitouni was the first to pounce after Radh Djellassi's shot came back off goalkeeper Fadel Khaled.
The second red card of the match came in the dying seconds when Souayah himself was shown the red card for elbowing an opponent.
The win means that Esperance now have 6 points from their 3 matches in Group C, while Sfaxien remain with just a single point from 3 games.
The other two teams in the group are Egypt's Zamalek and USM Bilda of Algeria.
The Arab Champions League includes teams from both Africa and the Middle East, with a total of eight African sides battling it out in two groups of four for the right to advance.
In the other group Etoile Sahel of Tunisia, NA Hussein-dey of Algeria are joined by Egyptian sides Ismaili and Al-Ahly.
The winner of the Arab Champions League, which will be decided in June, will receive $2 million dollars.
MMIX
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