Ittihad Alexandria's African adventure came to an early end on Friday as they exited the Confederation Cup after slumping to a 4-2 defeat on penalties against Tunisia's Esperance. Mohamed "Geddo" Ismail scored for Ittihad two minutes after re-start to give the home side an aggregate 1-1 draw but the Egyptians failed to advance to the round of 16 through the penalty shootout. Ibrahim Al-Shayeb and Hossam Abdel-Menem score Ittihad's two goals in the penalty shootout, while Mohamed Farouk and Omar Islam squandered their chances to get their team to the round of 16. On the other hand, Kamel Zaiem, Marcos Dos Santos, Radhouane Ben Ouanes each scored a goal in the shootout to hand their side the qualification ticket to the next round. The Kenyen referee appointed for the match made Esperance's Walid Tayeb repeat his spot-kick four times, while Ittihad's Abdul-Monem's repeated his shot once. Esperance will next face Moroccan powerhouse Raja Casablanca in the Confederation Cup round of 16.
Ittihad players celebrating after going one up The match witnessed an excessively rough Tunisian side, who took advantage of the Kenyan referee's below-par performance and engaged in rough attacks on the Ittihad players. Ittihad could've opened the score at as early as 15 minutes from the start of the match when Faroul went one-on-one with Esperance goalkeeper Jean-Jacques Tizie only to sent a powerless shot straight into the Ivorian's clutches. Geddo also squandered a number of great chances to score when he rounded his way into the Tunisian area and fired the ball towards Tizie in the 22nd minute, and then fired the ball past the Esperance post in the 43rd minute. Geddo crowned his efforts throughout the match when he made use of an Esperance defense blunder and sent the ball into the net in the 47th minute. Ittihad also saw a host of missed chances throughout the entire second half, losing their chance to qualify to the round of 16.
