Amine Tougai late goal sails Esperance over Al Merrikh

Mohamed Amine Tougai scored at the death as Tunisian giants Esperance edged out Sudan’s El Merrikh 1-0 at the Olympic Stadium in El-Menzah, starting their TotalEnergies CAF Champions League Group D action with victory.

The win sees Taraji move joint top with Algeria’s CR Belouizdad who began their campaign with a similar victory over Egypt’s Zamalek in Cairo on Friday.

Esperance knew they had to start strong in what is considered as the group of death in the competition and they had an early chance with Anice Badri shooting wide. Ali Bin Ramadan also had an effort fly over.

Al Merrikh were patient in their attack and they landed their first chance eight minutes to the break but Brazilian Mathos Bosa saw his shot saved by keeper Moez Bin Sharifia.

At the tail end of the first half, Badri had another close chance, but he saw it go begging.

Esperance got off the second half with as much pace and they were denied by the post in the 53rd minute when Mohamed El Houni’s shot beat the keeper but came off the woodwork.

Esperance continued to pile the pressure with Badri especially being a thorn in the flesh for Al Merrikh. With seven minutes added on, the home side knew they needed to push for a winner.

And they did so in the 94th minute when Tougai pounced on a rebound after the Merrikh keeper had spilled the ball, planting it into the net for the vital goal.

Esperance will now quickly shift their attention to the next duel when they travel away to Algeria to face Belouizdad in a top of the table clash while Merrikh will be at home against Zamalek.