Sfaxien recover to reach African Confederation Cup final

6 October 2007 19:51

Club Sportif Sfaxien of Tunisia qualified for the African Confederation Cup final Saturday after coming from behind to beat Mamelodi Sundowns 2-1 at Super Stadium. Chadi Hammami, seen here in action in 2006, and Blaise ´Lelo´ Mbele scored to give Sfaxien an unassailable four-point Group A advantage.

PRETORIA (AFP) - Club Sportif Sfaxien of Tunisia qualified for the African Confederation Cup final Saturday after coming from behind to beat Mamelodi Sundowns 2-1 at Super Stadium.

Veteran Zimbabwe-born striker Peter Ndlovu gave Sundowns a 10th-minute lead they held until the closing stages when Chadi Hammami and Blaise 'Lelo' Mbele scored to give Sfaxien an unassailable four-point Group A advantage.

Sfaxien completed their six-match programme with 13 points from four wins, a draw and a loss to Tout Puissant Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who are assured of finishing second.

The Tunisians face Al-Merreikh of Sudan or Dolphin of Nigeria next month in the two-leg final of the second-tier African Football Confederation (CAF) club competition that offers 300,000 dollars to the victors.

Merreikh are hot favourites to top Group B despite playing at Dolphin Sunday in the final round as they can afford to lose by four goals if they fail to score or by five if they find the net and still qualify.

It will be the second consecutive appearance in a CAF final for Sfaxien, who suffered a heart-breaking stoppage-time home loss to Al-Ahly of Egypt last November in the African Champions League decider.