It’s been six years since a club manage to successfully defend the CAF Champions League title and that was the record eight time African champions and Egyptian giants Al Ahly.
In 2013, the Cairo based giants defeated Orlando Pirates 3-1 in the final where Lennox Bacela missed a sitter and in the previous year they had beaten Esperance 3-2 on aggregate.
The Blood and Gold as Esperance are popularly known will be attempting to defend their title tonight when they meet Wydad Casablanca in the first leg of the CFACL final at the Complexe Sportif Moulay-Abdellah stadium in Rabat.
Mamelodi Sundowns lost to the Moroccans in the semi-finals and head coach Pitso Mosimane expects a tight game at midnight.
This season’s CAFCL final is also a meeting between the master and the apprentice.
Moine Chaabani, the current Esperance coach who won the title last year was an assistant to the legendary Faouzi Benzarti when they ended Mamelodi Sundowns’ longest unbeaten home record in the CAFCL group stages in 2017.
Benzarti who hails from Tunisia is now back with Wydad and Mosimane says the 69-year-old is the bossing the North African region. – Report by Velile Mnyandu
