St. George holds out for a goalless tie with Etoile du Sahel

The Ethiopian St. George side settled in a goalless draw against Tunisian side Etoile du Sahel in their final Group A match of the Orange CAF Confederation Cup that was held at the Addis Ababa stadium on Sunday. As a result St. George finish bottom of  Group A with four points.

The match was an evenly balanced one. In the first half the visitors put heavy pressure as they sought a win that would propel them into semis and they continued in the same mood in the second half. St. George’s striker Adane Girma could have found the opener from close range but failed to score. The new St George boy,  Samuel Sanumi also went close but it was another spurned scoring chance and there was yet another chance for the home side but Oumed Oukury’s attempt was thwarted by Etoile defenders.

As for Etoile du Sahel the closest they came to scoring when Baghdad Bounedjah ‘s goal bound shot was saved by goalkeeper Robert. Another two scoring opportunities Issam Jebali and Baghdad Bounedjah went in vain the second half for the Tunisians.

Etoile du Sahel head coach expressed deep disappointment at the end of the match. “We have created a number of clear scoring opportunities but we failed to put them away. The possibility to go through to the semi-final stage was there for us but did not take it. All the possibilities of scoring goals were foiled. What can we do? We simply lost out on a possible victory because of our own fault,” the coach said.

He added that when they came to Addis Ababa he was confident of collecting all three points. “The boys created the scoring opportunities but failed to finish off and put the ball in the net. We paid the price for this failure,” he said.

St. George interim coach Fasil Tekalign said that his great effort to finish third failed. “Our preparation was to beat the visitors and get one step better in the group table. The badly needed three points was within our reach but unfortunately we could not make it,” said Tekalign, who went on to add, “In this competition we got an opportunity to face experienced teams. CS Sfaxien finished top of our group without a single defeat. They were indeed strong sides in our group. We had a 2-0 win over the second placed Stade de Mali in our first encounter. Though today’s result is disappointing the lessons we gained in this competition are immense. What is expected from us hereafter is to strongly play and do well in the local competition to return for  next season’s continental club competitions and try to perform even better” concluded Tekalign.

Source: CAFOnline.com