Finally, the final

A surprisingly easy victory over Esperance put Ismaili in the African Champions League final, reports Abeer Anwar.

Ismaili of Egypt reached the final of the African Champions League, the continent's most prestigious club football tournament, for the first time since 1970 after a convincing 3-1 away win against Tunisia's Esperance.

In the first leg in Ismailia, Ismaili won by the same score to take the semi-final 6-2 on aggregate. Ismaili will now face Enyimba of Nigeria on either 28-30 November in Nigeria while the second leg match will take place in Egypt on either 12-14 December.

Esperance went into the game needing to register a 2-0 victory to advance to the final. Instead, Ahmed Fatahi scored for Ismaili in the 20th minute and Dramane Traore doubled the lead in the 35th minute, much to the bewilderment of Tunisia's players and spectators.

The Tunisians regrouped somewhat, scoring from a penalty in the 41st minute by Skander Souyah. But their chances of scoring anything additional dimmed after Gohar Mnari was sent off.

Ismaili's Mohamed Younis joined Mnari seven minutes into the second half after receiving a second yellow card. Even at 10 players apiece, Ismaili's Mohamed Mohsen Abu Greisha put the icing on the cake in the 62nd minute.

The loss proved too much for some on Esperance who entered into a shoving match with Ismaili players at the half while their supporters threw water bottles on the field. One unique tactic employed by Esperance was to have the ball boys throw a ball onto the field whenever Ismaili threatened to score, thus forcing the referee to stop the game. This scenario repeated itself at least twice and should have been stopped dead in its tracks by the officiating.

"I am very happy with my team's performance," Ibrahim Osman, Ismaili's manager, said. "We will do our best to win the cup." Selim Shaiboub, Esperance's president, said his team had lost a golden opportunity to reach the final but that an injury to star player Al-Malki and the sending off of Mnari had greatly hurt Esperance's chances. Shaiboub also later apologised for the half-time assault on Ismaili.

Ismaili became the first Egyptian club to capture the African Champions League when they beat Engelbere of then Zaire 33 years ago. Ahli and Zamalek are the only other Egyptian clubs to have won the event.

Esperance, which won the African trophy once, lost for the third consecutive time to an Egyptian squad.