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Tunisian club set to complete African Cup treble

SoccerNews in General Soccer News 4 Dec 2010

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Tunisian club CS Sfaxien are firm favourites to defeat Moroccan visitors FUS Rabat Saturday and complete an African Confederation Cup title treble.

Winners of the second-tier Confederation of African Football competition in 2007 and 2008, the team from the Mediterranean city of Sfax will keep the trophy permanently if they succeed after a goalless first leg last weekend.

And the Confederation Cup record of the ‘Arab Juventus’ at the 25,000-seat Taieb Mhiri Stadium — 23 victories, one draw and a 54-6 goal record — suggests surprise packets FUS stand little chance.

The sides also clashed in the group phase and Sfaxien triumphed 3-0 at home with a brace from leading scorer Hamza Younes while Nigerian Uche Agba was the other scorer.

Although Sfaxien are the least popular of the “big four” football clubs in the North African country behind Esperance, Club Africain and Etoile Sahel, the entire nation will be backing them.

A dark cloud hangs over Tunisia after Esperance had a player sent off in each leg of the African Champions League final and suffered a humiliating 6-1 aggregate loss against TP Mazembe from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

France-born Sfaxien coach Pierre Lechantre does not doubt his team will confirm a Tunisian dominance of the seven-year competition which Etoile Sahel won four years ago.

“FUS deserve our respect. We have watched them on many occasions and they bring no secrets to Sfax,” the handler of the 2000 Cameroon African Nations Cup-winning team told the Tunisian media.

“What I can say with certainty, however, is that our opponents will be facing a very different Sfaxien team from the one they defeated in Morocco during the mini-league phase.”

Apart from whipping FUS, the Tunisians defeated Al-Ahly Tripoli of Libya 1-0, Petrojet of Egypt 1-0, Petro Atletico of Angola 3-1, Zanaco of Zambia 2-1, Harras al-Hodoud of Egypt 3-1 and Al-Hilal of Sudan 1-0 at home this year.

Sfaxien have found scoring tough in their fourth Confederation Cup campaign — they were eliminated in the final qualifying round last year — with 16 goals from 15 outings and five of those were netted by Younes.

History offers some hope to FUS, a star-less outfit coached by international unknown Houcine Amouta and promoted to the top level of Moroccan club football a mere three years ago.

Hearts of Oak from Ghana in 2004 and Sfaxien in 2008 won the Confederation Cup despite being held at home in the first leg of the final with the former succeeding on penalties and the latter on away goals.

But a side that relies heavily on Niger striker Alhassane Issoufou for goals has triumphed only twice on the road in eight Confederation Cup away matches — at Hodoud in the pool phase and against Al-Ittihad of Libya in the semi-finals.

Fellow Rabat club FAR won the competition five years ago after a convincing second-leg victory over Nigerian visitors Dolphin, but the chances of a second Moroccan success in the Cup will surely have to wait at least another year.

Apart from a 660,000-dollar prize, the winners get a crack at Mazembe in Lubumbashi on January 30 for the African Super Cup with the victors’ bank balance receiving a 75,000 boost.

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