Esperance pile on points to defeat ES Zarzis

2009-11-02

A patch of fairly listless 9th-round play in the Tunisian Premier League was livened up by Esperance's 7-0 demolition of ES Zarzis.

By Mona Yahia for Magharebia in Tunis – 02/11/09

[File] Esperance celebrates yet another goal as team obliterates ES Zarzis 7-0.

The latest Tunisian Premier League matches were mostly lacking in surprises, apart from ES Zarzis' shattering 0-7 loss to league leaders Esperance on Sunday (November 1st) to maintain their dominance in league standings.

With this win, Esperance raised their points to 24 after the 9th round, 4 points ahead of their closest competitors Club Africain, while ES Zarzis bring up the bottom in 12th place.

After the match, ES Zarzis coach Ezzedine Aiet Joudi said, "Today, the stronger team defeated the weaker team. There are individual weaknesses in our team."

For his part, the head of ES Zarzis, Ali Baboura, confirmed that he wouldn't hold the coach responsible for this humiliating defeat. Instead, he blamed the players.

The derby match between Club Africain and Stade Tunisien, which was played Saturday (October 31st) as part of the 9th round of the CLP-1, ended in a goalless draw.

Stade Tunisien managed to curb the attacks of Club Africain, opting to wait for them in their own zone and focus on counterattacks.

"I'm happy, because it's not an easy thing to win a point from Club Africain," Stade Tunisien's Mohammed Jdidi said after the match.

Meanwhile, Club Africain's Mohammed Bach Tobji said, "We let the win slip by, and lost two points. However, in general, we played a good match."

Club Africain coach Pierre Lechantre said that his team's performance improved in the second half, but that his players still lacked efficiency.

In the meantime, Stade Tunisien coach Patrick Liewig said his players carried out his instructions and kept up the needed pace.

In another match, CS Sfaxien scored a precious 2-0 win over ES Sahel. The victory helped CSS jump to the 3rd place, tying Stade Tunisien with 17 points, and leaving them still 3 points adrift of 2nd place Club Africain.

With their loss, ES Sahel dropped to 5th place with 16 points.

JS Kairouanaise defeated CS Hammam-Lif 1-0 and are now in 7th place with 12 points.

In another match, CA Bizertin, in spite of their strong start this season, managed only a 1-1 draw against El Gawafel Sportives de Gafsa (EGSG).

CA Bizertin are now in 5th place with 16 points, after leading the field as recently as the 5th round. As for EGSG, they are in 8th place with 10 points, tied with Union Sportive Monastirienne, who just delivered a 2-1 defeat to guests Olympique Béja. The latter are now in 10th place with 8 points.

AS Kasserine scored an important 2-1 win against their guests ES Hammam-Sousse. The win allowed ASK to jump to 10th place with 8 points, just a lone point ahead of their guests ES Hammam-Sousse, who have 7 points.