Captain Ammar Jemal scored the winner for the Tunisians to add to his late equaliser in the first leg, which had finished 1-1.
Sunday’s game was played amid tight
security, following Tuesday’s bomb attack in Tunis, with a reduced crowd
and an earlier kick-off time.
Jemal – the 28-year-old centre back, who
previously played in the German Bundesliga with FC Cologne and Ajaccio
in the French Ligue 1 – emerged as his team’s star, as Etoile won
Africa’s second-biggest club competition.His
bundled finish in the 24th minute of Sunday’s decider at the Olympic
Stadium in Sousse added to his vital equaliser in the final minutes of
last Saturday’s first leg in Soweto, which cancelled out Thamsanqa
Gabuza’s strike.
Jemal’s second goal of the tie came
after Pirates defender Happy Jele miscued a cross and the ball spun
viciously back towards goal, with the centre-half managing to bundle the
ball over the line.
And the initial crowd limit of 20,000 in the 25,000-seat stadium was halved to 10,000 on the orders of Tunisian authorities.
But that did not help in the two-legged
final, as Jemal – deputising as captain for injured goalkeeper Aymen
Mathlouthi – inspired Etoile to claim a ninth African title.
It is also the fifth Tunisian success in
12 finals of the African equivalent of the Europa League, with Sfaxien
having triumphed a record three times.
Etoile pocket $660,000 and secure a
Super Cup date with Champions League title-holders TP Mazembe in
Democratic Republic of Congo city Lubumbashi.
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