Tunisia’s Esperance Tunis scored a vital away goal in the first leg of the Caf Champions League final on Saturday after drawing 1-1 with Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca at the Stade Moulay Abdalla.
It was a cagey start to the match by both sides with neither venturing too far forward in attack, but it was Esperance who saw more of the ball early on.
Still, despite having the majority of the possession in the opening 20 minutes, the Tunisian side failed to create any real goal scoring chances.
In fact, the first decent opportunity in front of goal fell for Wydad on the half hour mark when Stade Moulay Abdalla met a good cross into the box, but his 10-yard header shaved the wrong side of the post.
However, a minute before the break Esperance were able to take the lead when Ahmed Reda Tagnaouti initially saved a header from Fousseny Coulibaly, but fumbled the ball straight back at the striker who made no mistake with his second attempt from close range, 1-0.
Wydad thought they had restored parity in the third minute of additional time at the end of the first half, but Ayoub El Amloud’s goal was ruled out after VAR adjudged him to have used his hand in the build-up.
It was 1-0 to the visitors at halftime.
Wydad’s task was made all the more difficult five minutes into the second half when they were reduced to 10 men following a second yellow card for Brahim Nakach.
Despite being a man down, the home side continued to push forward in search of the equaliser and came close in the 71st minute, but Ismail El Haddad saw his shot from the edge of the box superbly saved by the Esperance keeper.
In the 79th minute Wydad did level matters when Cheick Camara headed home from close range after latching onto a pin-point headed pass from Salaheddine Saidi, 1-1.
Neither team could find the winning goal in the final 10 minutes and will meet for the second leg in Tunisia next weekend to decide who will lift the Caf Champions League trophy.
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