Kenya Premier League Champions Gor Mahia are through to the 2018 Confederations of African Football (CAF) Champions League round of 16 stage, and they are now poised to meet Tunisian giants Esperance.
According to CAF Champions League fixtures, Gor Mahia will have to navigate through a tricky two-legged home and away fixtures against Esperance, in order to qualify for the lucrative Champions’ League group stage.
Gor Mahia put up a spirited show to eliminate Equatorial Guinea side Leones Vegetarianos 3-1 on aggregate in the preliminary round.The teams drew 1-1 on Wednesday in Malabo; days after Gor Mahia registered a 2-0 win in the first leg match on home turf.
Unlike Gor Mahia, Esperance did not take part in the preliminary round matches. This is because Tunisian league is ranked higher than the Kenya Premier League.
The first leg of the round of 16 matches will be played on March 06, 2018, with Gor Mahia hosting the first leg encounter.The two teams met at the same stage in 2014. Gor Mahia lost the match on an 8-2 aggregate.
Wikipedia.org indicates that Esperance has won the Tunisian National League 27 times, Tunisian Cup 15 times and Tunisian Super Cup 3 times.
The Tunisian side has won the CAF Champions League on two occasions: in 1994 and 2011.