Football: Esperance in trouble after second CAF defeat
Ahly triumphed over Esperance despite having to forfeit home advantage due to civil unrest.
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - CAF Champions League title favourites Esperance are in serious trouble after just two group matchdays.
The Tunisians suffered a second successive defeat when crashing 3-2 to Libyans Al-Ahly Benghazi this weekend in a clash of matchday 1 losers.
Ahly triumphed over Esperance despite having to forfeit home advantage due to civil unrest and play in Tunisian coastal city Sfax.
Zimbabwean Edward Sadomba, Farag Mbarak and Nigerian Moses Orkuma were the Benghazi marksmen while Ahmed Akaichi and Osama Darragi scored for Esperance.
Defeat leaves two-time CAF champions Esperance pointless at the bottom of Group B while Benghazi are third with three points.
The Tunisians made a disastrous debut last weekend, slumping 2-1 at home to fellow former title-holders Algerians Entente Setif.
Benghazi, who eliminated defending champions Egyptians Al-Ahly in a qualifier, lost their first game 3-1 to CS Sfaxien at the ground where they shocked Esperance.
Setif host record three-time CAF Confederation Cup winners Sfaxien late Sunday in a top-of-the-table match.
Esperance were outstanding in the qualifying stage, scoring 12 goals as they brushed off Kenyans Gor Mahia and Malians Real Bamako.
Haythem Jouini bagged six of those goals to be joint leading scorer this season in the premier African club competition with Tanzanian Mrisho Ngassa from now-eliminated Young Africans.
And 1970s Dutch star Ruud Krol coached Esperance to national league glory this month having moved to Tunis from a successful spell with Sfaxien.
The Benghazi Butchers were two goals ahead within 12 minutes at Stade Taieb Mhiri through the fifth of the CAF campaign from Sadomba and the second from Mbarak.
Cameroonian Yannick N Djeng wasted a chance to halve the deficit before Ahmed Akaichi scored on 20 minutes for the Blood and Gold .
The Tunisians thought they had levelled soon after only for Darragi to be flagged offside and Benghazi regained a two-goal advantage via Orkuma before half-time.
The Libyans were on the back-foot for much of the second half and held off repeated Esperance assaults until 11 minutes from time when Darragi netted.
But the Tunisians could not unlock the Libyan defence again and Krol and his squad face much soul-searching ahead of an early June date with Sfaxien.
Defender Mohamed Abdul-Shafy was the unlikely star as Egyptians Zamalek edged Sudanese El-Hilal 2-1 in a Cairo game staged behind closed doors for security reasons.
Zamalek coach and former Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham striker Mido had labelled the Group A duel a "live-or-die" showdown.
What he could never have imagined, though, was a defender displaying exquisite skills to earn the White Knights maximum points.
Abdul-Shafy provided breathtaking edge-of-the-box ball control as he shifted the ball from one foot to the other before hammering a low shot into the net eight minutes from time.
He created the early opening goal for Mauritania-born Dominique da Silva and Mudather Careca Eltaib equalised midway through the opening half.Zamalek needed a victory having lost at Democratic Republic of Congo outfit Vita on matchday 1 while Hilal won their opener at home to another Congolese side, TP Mazembe.
