JOHANNESBURG (South Africa) 12 Oct 1998 Tunisian clubs went a way to making up for the disappointment of their country's World Cup performance by putting themselves in line for a possible clean sweep of Africa's three club competition prizes over the weekend.
Etoile Sahel won an important African Champions' League group match on October 11, to move within one point of the leaders in their battle for a place in December's final.
Esperance, the country's most popular team, hammered fancied rivals Wydad Casablanca 4-1 in their African Cup Winners' Cup semifinal, first leg tie, while CS Sfaxien beat Daring Club Motema Pembe 2-1 in Kinshasa at the same stage of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup.
The three results has boost the moraleTunisia after early exit at the World Cup finals, when they fired national team coach Henryk Kasperczak after just two matches and managed just one point.
Many of his former charges were in action over the weekend for the three But it was a Brazilian import who stole the show for Etoile Sahel as Silva dos Santos scored the only goal of the game against group A leaders Dynamos.
Esperance ran riot against their Moroccan opponents in Tunis on October 10. They were 2-0 up after just 11 minutes with World Cup squad member Khalid Badra scoring the first and veteran striker Ziad Tlemcani adding a second.
Tlemcani got a further goal near the end after Sami Laroussi had scored Esperance's third in the 53rd minute. Wydad's consolation came from Adel Chabouki.
Sfax's first goal in the Democratic Republic of Congo came from a Congolese player - recent signing Banza Kasongo scoring against his compatriots in front of a 70,000 strong crowd at the Kamonyola stadium.
In other matches, Champions' League favourites ASEC Abidjan lost their 100 percent record in group B but are still favoured to win the group.
They were beaten 1-0 by Manning Rangers in Durban on October 9, but are still two points clear of the South African side. GRi
