Tunisia dominate Confed Cup

Teams are trying to advance to the Confederation Cup group stages

Tunisian clubs have won the last two Confederation Cups and four of the 16 survivors this year come from the north African country.

But the luck of the draw means no more than three can survive the fourth and last knockout round of the tournament.

African champions Etoile du Sahel and Esperance, the most successful Tunisian clubs on the international circuit, clash this weekend.

Club Africain host Djoliba of Mali and the reigning champions CS Sfaxien face Platinum Stars in South Africa.

The weekend's other tie is Olympic Khouribga of Morocco face Al Merreikh of Sudan.

The feature first leg match pits the 'Red Devils' of Etoile against the 'Blood and Gold' of Esperance in a repeat of the Tunisian Cup final that Esperance won 2-1 last weekend.

Etoile have home advantage this time and will surely pay special attention to veteran Morocco striker Hicham Aboucherouane, scorer of both goals for the cup winners in Tunis.

Confederation Cup winners two years ago, Etoile went one better last November by lifting the African Champions League trophy at the expense of favourites Al Ahly of Egypt.

However, the only team to win all five African club competitions made a shock exit in the final qualifying round of the Champions League in May, losing 1-0 at home and away to modest Dynamos of Zimbabwe.

The consolation for Etoile and the other seven Champions League losers was a second chance in the Confederation Cup.

Esperance are among eight clubs who survived three rounds of Confederation Cup eliminators and the Tunis team coached by Brazilian Carlos Cabral must be slight favourites to reach the group phase starting next month.

Former African champions Club Africain are expected to establish a lead over Djoliba while far greater international exposure should benefit Sfaxien against a Platinum side lacking big-name footballers.

InterClube will be wary of comeback kings Mount Cameroon, who staged the greatest recovery in the Confederation Cup.

Francis Evambe scored a hat-trick as they trounced Ajax Cape Town of South Africa 5-0 to overcome a four-goal first leg deficit.

Kabylie have changed coaches with Saudi Arabia-bound Moussa Saib succeeded by widely travelled Romanian Alexandre Moldovan and the Algerian 'Canaries' appear too strong for workmanlike Astres.

Khouribga hope to exploit the poor away record of 2007 Confederation Cup runners-up Merreikh while Ittihad may battle to build a lead over new Ghana champions Kotoko.

South Africans often lack the imagination to pierce North African defences and Mamelodi Sundowns could become the latest victims as Harras al-Hadood come to Pretoria having conceded just one goal in four outings.