Tunisia: Etoile du Sahel take out frustration on AS Marsa

In the midst of a disastrous week that included a premature elimination from the CAF Confederation Cup and the resignation of the club’s president, Etoile du Sahel finally enjoyed a positive moment on Wednesday.

The popular club from Sousse delivered an inspired second half performance to earn their first Tunisia Ligue 1 Professionnelle victory in over a month with a 2-0 result over AS Marsa. Raki Aouani finished from a rebound to provide the breakthrough for ESS, who jumped up three places into 9th place with the victory.

11-time Tunisian champions Etoile have been discussed for all the wrong reasons this season, something that was amplified on Sunday in the CAF Confederation Cup after the club fell to Nairobi United in a penalty kick shootout. The result meant that the Kenyan club advanced to the group stage at the expense of the Tunisian giants.

However, Wednesday’s victory will be an encouraging sign in the midst of a busy stretch for ESS. Next up is two home matches against ES Metlaoui (Saturday) and ES Zarzis (next Tuesday) where L’Etoile will hope to earn more points to continue their rise up the table.

The other two matches from Wednesday ended in scoreless draws. US Monastir continued their lackluster form with a 0-0 result at home against US Ben Guerdane after falling to a decisive aggregate defeat against Algeria’s JS Kabylie in the final round of qualifying for the CAF Champions League.

Also, Stade Tunisien have now fallen to second place on the table after a 0-0 draw at home against CS Sfaxien. Club Africain are now the league leaders by virtue of a superior goal difference. CA will travel to face Stade next Tuesday after hosting AS Soliman at home on Saturday.