Agosto punching above their weight

Esperance de Tunis dominated proceedings and had more shots at goals against their hosts Primeiro de Agosto at a sold out 11Novembre Stadium in Lusaka, but it was the lightweight army side that finished 1-0 winners of this CAF Champions League encounter.

No one gave Agosto a ghost of a chance to progress as far as they have done but, punching way above their weight, the Angolans have claimed one huge scalp after another and following their impressive victory, are now 90 minutes away from the final.

Nerves got the better of them against a highly organized and polished Esperance side trying very hard not to concede, but Lourenco Luvumvu Bua slipped past the well marshaled defence for the only goal of the match in this first leg encounter.

The second leg is not going to be easy at the cauldron of Tunis on October 23. They will meet a side that will pour every man into attack and when the situation demands, will apply delaying tactics, claim fouls that never happened and generally frustrate their opponents with unsporting behavior.

But it was smooth sailing for Al Ahly who put up a polished performance in an almost eerily empty stadium as they ran out comfortable 2-0 winners over Entente Setif of Algeria in a game boycotted by the largely fanatic Egyptian supporters.

It is not clear at this stage why Egyptians elected to boycott the game slated for the Al-Salam Stadium in Cairo, but Walid Soliman and Islam Mohareb scored twice to hand the Red Devils an advantage going into the second leg in three weeks.