By Ime Bassey, with agency reports
Enyimba will today in Casablanca, kick off the semifinals of the CAF Champions League against Wydad. The other fixture sees Esperance from Tunisia facing Sudan’s Al Hilal in Omdurman.

Esperance will attempt to get their hands on the most prestigious club title on the continent after losing out to TP Mazembe in last year’s final. The Tunisians have played three finals (1999, 2000 and 2010) and lost all. But they are determined this time around to right the wrongs of the past years.

Esperance’s semi final opponents, Al Hilal who turn 81 years this year, hope to do more than their 1992 performance when they lost in the finals to Wydad. The Moroccans are facing a tough test against Enyimba, founded in 1976 and winners of the title in 2003 and 2004.

The Tunisians and Nigerians topped their respective groups.

Enyimba won four matches and had two draws compared to Esperance who recorded two victories and four draws.

Their opponents had less glorious results. Al Hilal scooped eight points from a possible 18 points  while Wydad of Casablanca got sevens, enough to edge their Egyptian rivals Al Ahly, thanks to their superior goals advantage from head to head ties.

The group stage also revealed that the Sudanese and Moroccans had some problems with their defence. Many will be hoping the group leaders meet in the finals but the Champions League is full of surprises. Since its creation in 1997, the four semi finalist have never met each other at this stage of the competition but they represent four influential pools of the game on the continent, Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia and Sudan who have played great roles in CAF Inter club competitions.

Aware of the tough task that Enyimba face today,, their Chairman, Felix Anyansi-Agwu has warned that the Nigerian champions will crash again if they do not fight against Wydad..

“We have four more games in the CAF Champions League to emerge winners, but if we do not fight, we will crash out, just like we did against Heartland,” said Anyansi.