Eight teams in the playoff stage of the 2022-23 Tunisia Ligue 1 Professionnelle have completed five matches each and are approaching the halfway point following this week’s games. Despite a defeat to rivals Espérance in last week’s Tunisian Classico, Étoile du Sahel remain at the top of the table with fifteen points after bouncing back with a 1-0 victory at Club Africain at the beginning of the week. 20-year-old attacker Oussama Abid scored a first half penalty kick for his sixth goal of the season to continue a push for Étoile to return to CAF club competition next season.
Étoile, runners-up from Group A during the first stage of the competition, are two points ahead of Group B runners-up US Ben Guerdane who defeated US Monastir in a thrilling 3-2 victory on Thursday. Former Étoile midfielder Fakhreddine Ouji scored twice for USBG and league top scorer Rafik Kamergi scored the match winner deep into second half stoppage time to extend Monastir’s winless streak to five matches in all competitions. Kamergi has twelve goals this season for the Cavaliers in league play.
The group winners from the first stage, Monastir and defending league champions Espérance, are not faring as well despite receiving a four-point boost to begin the playoff stage due to their success early in the season. Both teams have suffered from the fatigue of competing in four different competitions and Espérance fell to a 1-0 defeat to CS Sfaxien on Wednesday to finish off a stretch of four matches in fourteen days. Iraq national team winger Hussein Ali scored the only goal inside the opening fifteen minutes for CSS, their first goal and first victory of the playoff stage.
Highlights from all four matches this week are below following the scores.
Scores
Olympique Béja 2-0 US Tataouine
Club Africain 0-1 Étoile du Sahel
CS Sfaxien 1-0 Espérance ST
US Ben Guerdane 3-2 US Monastir
League Table
Highlights
CS Sfaxien 1-0 Espérance ST
US Ben Guerdane 3-2 US Monastir