CAF CL: Mohamed Drager calm despite Esperance late arrival

Tunisia and Esperance defender Mohamed Dräger has watered down any form of pressure following the team’s arrival in South Africa two days before their CAF Champions League semifinal clash against Mamelodi Sundowns.

The Tunisian outfit walk into the second leg of the competition from a grueling 1-0 loss to the ten-man Brazilians at the Hammadi Agrebi Stadium last Sunday.

🟠🇹🇳🇿🇦✈️ Tunisian giants @EsperanceSTunis landed today in SA ahead of their crunch CAFCL 2nd leg semifinal vs @Masandawana at a sold out Loftus stadium 🏟️ on Saturday.

The Taraji defender Mohamed Dräger answers if it was ideal to just arrive 2 days before the big game.… pic.twitter.com/kt6FO6Xui6

— Velile Mnyandu 🇿🇦 (@Velile_Mnyandu) April 16, 2026

Dräger, who signed for The Blood and Gold from Bundesliga 2 club Eintracht Braunschweig, spoke to SABC Sports.

Esperance lost the first leg at home

“To be fair, it’s not an everyday journey, fifteen hours plus journey,” he said.

“Of course we will need the first night to adapt but all the boys are used to it, even like me or the boys who came from Europe are used to these kind of travels from the national team.

“So it’s not like a big surprise but it’s part of champions league football.

“Mashaa Allah it’s a big continent and we are all part of it.

“Yh, so in Europe it’s a bit easy, it’s part of the game, it’s part of the culture and at the end of the day everyone is proud of it.”

Dräger has played four out of seven CAF Champions League matches as Esperance look to overturn the 1-0 deficit against Sundowns. He has 39 caps with three goals for the Tunisia national team.

Sundowns got the only goal from Brayan Leon Muniz which proved the difference ahead of the second leg at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday at 1:00PM.