Etoile Fall On Their Sword Against Wydad In Champions League

Etoile du Sahel needed to score three unanswered goals to advance to the semi-finals of African Champions League but in the end its Wydad Casablanca who made it to the last four.

The Tunisians won 1-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Rades on Saturday night, a result which was not enough to overrun a 2-0 deficit from the first leg in Morocco last weekend.

The home side was the first to create an opportunity at goal when the ball fell to Iheb Msakni after five minutes. He opted to take it on his left foot, but he could only skew it wide of Ahmed Tagnaouti’s goal.

Yassine Chikhaoui was caught on an offside call after a quarter of an hour, before seeing Mohamed Mathnani’s cross go out of play.

Etoile had a firm hold of the game by the midway point of the opening half, and they saw Behaeddine Sellami deliver a promising ball into the box. It, however, failed to meet its target as it flew just inches over Chihaoui’s head.

Wydad’s Badie Aouk then supplied a cross into the box eight minutes before the interval, only to see Cheick Comara head wide of Achraf Krik’s poles.

The half was concluded by yet another promising opportunity from Etoile. Ben Aziza found Chijhaoui and the striker turned on the ball to fire his effort just millimetres off the desired target.

Maher Hannachi came very close to breaking the deadlock after the restart as his header struck the crossbar.

Etoile finally broke the deadlock in the 58th minute when Aribi provided a fine finish after taking advantage of some space in Wydad’s defence to bring the home crowd to life.

Second-half substitute Ayoub El Amloud look to bring his side level with a smart header from the left, but Krir smothered the scare with 20 minutes remaining.

Etoile came out with a few attacks of their own in the closing quarter of an hour, in search for three more goals to at least take the tie to penalties.

However, it was not to be as the Tunisians bowed out of the continent’s premium club competition.