Espérance and ES Sahel in Tunisia's Cup Final

01/07/2008

The teams have been selected for this year's Tunisian Cup football final. ES Sahel, fresh off a victory against Stade Tunisien, will play against powerhouse Espérance on Saturday in Radès.

By Mona Yahia for Magharebia in Tunis – 01/07/08

[Mona Yahia] Espérance's Michael Eneramo (right) fights for the ball before scoring his second goal, helping his squad beat EGSG 3-2.

ES Sahel and Espérance will square off in the 2008 Tunisian Cup final, to be played Saturday (July 5th) in Radès. ES Sahel advanced to the last round with a narrow victory on Friday against Stade Tunisien. The match was carried 6-5 on penalties after regulation time ended in a 2-2 draw.

Jilson Silva and Amine Chermiti scored for ES Sahel, while Stade Tunisien owed their two goals to Hamdi Mabrouki and Mohamed Selliti.

The team, playing their first match under new coach Michel Decastel, managed to impose relative domination in the first minutes of the match against their opponents, who played cautiously and depended on counter attacks. Suspense continued up to the very end and into extra time. The two teams resorted to penalties, which finally gave the victory to ES Sahel.

On Saturday, Espérance defeated El Gawafel Sportives de Gafsa (EGSG) 3-2. Espérance's Michael Eneramo was the prominent player and managed to score an equaliser for his team in the first half in the 34th minute after EGSG's Baba George managed to score the lead goal for his team in the 28th minute.

Kalil Chamam managed to penetrate through the EGSG defense line, but was tripped. The referee announced a penalty kick, which was played by Michael Eneramo, who scored his second goal in the match, giving his team a 2-1 lead. Cameroonian striker Henri Bienvenu Ntsama scored the third goal for Espérance, and Patrick Kazady tapped in a second for EGSG.

"We expected the match to be difficult, but in the end, we knew how to score a win and qualify for the final," Espérance assistant coach Maher Kanzari said.

Espérance coach Cabralzinho, who bested EGSG twice this season, said, "We were surprised with the performance of the other team and with their full control over the midfield. However, we were able to a certain extent to stop the danger of their forwards. Fortunately, we scored the equaliser at an excellent time and we were able to score the second goal in the best possible timing."

Meanwhile, EGSG coach Samir Jalouli said, "We scored the first goal, but we didn't know how to maintain our lead due to errors. When Espérance took the lead after scoring their second goal, we didn't surrender. On the contrary, we were able to win in the battle to control the centre of the pitch, and we created so many scoring opportunities."

This year's cup final will be ES Sahel's 15th appearance in the club's long history. They have won the cup on seven occasions, the last of which was in 1996. Espérance, last year's title holders, claim an astonishing 12 cup victories out of 18 appearances.