Qatari capital Doha will be the place where 2018 Total CAF Champions League winners Esperance of Tunisia will take on the 2018 Total CAF Confederation Cup champions Raja Casablanca of Morocco in the 2019 Total CAF Super Cup.
This is the 27th edition of the annual one match Super Cup of the Confédération Africaine de Football, since its inception in 1992.
It will be the first time that African teams are going to play a competitive fixture outside the continent. The match will be played on Friday, March 29, 2019.
In 19 of the last 20 CAF Super Cup editions, the CAF Champions League winners emerged victorious, with the only exception being Morocco’s Maghreb de Fez winning the 2012 CAF Super Cup on penalties on the expense of Esperance.
Esperance, champions of 6 CAF titles are making their fourth CAF Super Cup appearance. They won the trophy in 1995, but failed to replicate the feat in 1999 and 2012. On the other hand Raja who also have 6 CAF titles to their name are making their third CAF Super Cup appearance, with also one victory in 2000 after they ended on the losing side in 1998.
Esperance will enter the game backing on the form of their striker Anice Badri, who finished last season’s Champions League as top scorer with eight goals.
Raja themselves have their attacking force in the form of Mahmoud Benhalib, who scored 12 goals in last season’s CAF Confederation Cup to finish as top scorer.
Moine Chaabani, former Esperance player is looking for his second trophy as coach to his boyhood club. Ironically his counterpart in Raja is Frenchman Patrice Carteron, the coach he defeated last November to win the Champions League. Carteron, then Ahly coach took charge of Raja last month, succeeding the CAF Confederation Cup winner Juan Carlos Garrido of Spain.
The 2019 CAF Super Cup match between Esperance and Raja Casablanca will be the third meeting between Tunisian and Moroccan sides in this competition. Each country one once, with Tunisian Etoile du Sahel beating Raja on penalties in 1998, while Morocco’s Maghreb de Fez defeated Esperance the same way in 2012.