Espérance earns precious win over Stade Tunisien

2008-09-29

Tunisian soccer teams continue to entertain fans in the country's league. Espérance won; EGSG lost; Jendouba Sport and CS Hammam-Lif are tight and more to come.

By Mona Yahia for Magharebia in Tunis—29/09/08

[Mona Yahya] With another win this season, Espérance is one step closer to repeating the first-rate performance that earned it the Tunisian Cup last year.

The fourth round of Tunisia's premier football league started on Saturday (September 27th), with a match between Stade Tunisien and Espérance at El Menzah.

It was a suspenseful match that stayed fiercely competitive throughout, but Espérance ultimately came out on top, securing a 3-2 victory in the final minutes.

Stade Tunisien pressured Espérance from the very start, but lost a chance when they got a penalty kick in the 18th minute but failed to score.

After Espérance started to pressure their opponent, the defence of Stade Tunisien made a mistake exploited by Walid Taieb, who netted the ball home in Aimen Zidan's goal in the 28th minute.

The referee then declared a second penalty for Stade Tunisien and Khaled Korbi managed to score. As a result of protests from Espérance players, Captain Khalid Badra was red carded.

"We lost many scoring opportunities," said Stade Tunisien coach Farid Ben Belgassem. "As a result, we sustained the loss. In addition, the players weren't in good shape as far as the physical aspects are concerned."

In the second half, Espérance managed to score the lead goal in the 47th minute when Ousama Daragi surprised goalkeeper Ayman with a header off a corner kick by Tarek Achour. After that, Mohammed Seliti managed to score an equaliser in the 57th minute.

However, when the match was about to end in a draw, the referee announced a penalty kick for Espérance. Michael Eneramo managed to score the winning goal for Espérance.

Espérance coach Capral, meanwhile, put responsibility on the referee for his players' performance.

In other matches on Sunday, ES Sahel scored a broad 4-1 win against El Gawafel Sportives de Gafsa (EGSG). With this win, ES Sahel took the lead in the table rankings with ten points.

Espérance is next with nine points and Club Africain follows with eight points after a 1-0 win Sunday against AS Kasserine at El Menzah. AS Kasserine is now in ninth place with four points.

EGSG dropped to sixth place with five points, tied with CS Hammam-Lif and Olympique Béja.

La Marsa scored their first win this season when they defeated Olympique Béja 1-0.

In another match, Union Sportive Monastirienne (USM) seized a precious 1-0 win against their host CA Bizertin. With this win, they are now in the fourth place with six points.

CA Bizertin dropped to the last place in the table rankings with three points, tied with Jendouba Sport and La Marsa.

ES Hamam-Sousse drew 1-1 in their match against guests CS Sfaxien, while the match of Jendouba Sport and CS Hammam-Lif ended in a 0-0 draw.