2022–23 Espérance Sportive de Tunis season

The 2022–23 Espérance Sportive de Tunis season was the 104th season in existence and the club's 68th consecutive season in the top flight of Tunisian football. In addition to the domestic league, Espérance de Tunis participated in this season's editions of the Tunisian Cup and the CAF Champions League.

Espérance de Tunis was not scheduled to play any matches between 9 November and 10 December as Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane, Ghailene Chaalali and Yassine Meriah participated with Tunisia at 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Despite finishing second in the league and advancing to the Champions League semi-finals, Espérance de Tunis went trophyless and lost the Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 for the first time since the 2015–16 season.

Squad list

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Nat.	Name	Date of Birth (Age)	Signed from
Goalkeepers
1		Mohamed Sedki Debchi	(1999-10-28)28 October 1999 (aged 23)	Avenir de Gabès
12		Moez Ben Cherifia (C)	(1991-06-24)24 June 1991 (aged 32)	Youth system
16		Hamza Ghanmi	(1998-04-15)15 April 1998 (aged 25)	Youth system
26		Amenallah Memmiche	(2004-04-20)20 April 2004 (aged 19)	Youth system
38		Wassim Karoui	(1997-01-07)7 January 1997 (aged 26)	Youth system
Defenders
2		Mohamed Ben Ali	(1995-02-16)16 February 1995 (aged 28)	Club Sfaxien
4		Mohamed Amine Tougai	(2000-01-22)22 January 2000 (aged 23)	NA Hussein Dey
6		Mohamed Ali Yacoubi	(1990-10-05)5 October 1990 (aged 32)	Quevilly-Rouen
13		Amenallah Majhed	(2003-07-18)18 July 2003 (aged 19)	Youth system
20		Mohamed Amine Ben Hamida	(1995-12-15)15 December 1995 (aged 27)	Youth system
22		Hani Amamou	(1997-09-16)16 September 1997 (aged 25)	Club Sfaxien
24		Yassine Meriah	(1993-07-02)2 July 1993 (aged 29)	Al Ain
29		Zied Machmoum	(1993-01-18)18 January 1993 (aged 30)	Union Monastirienne
30		Houssem Dagdoug	(1998-07-23)23 July 1998 (aged 24)	Club Sfaxien
32		Raed Fedaa	(1997-05-20)20 May 1997 (aged 26)	Youth system
35		Zinedine Sassi	(2003-08-04)4 August 2003 (aged 19)	Guingamp
36		Raed Bouchniba	(2003-09-25)25 September 2003 (aged 19)	Youth system
Midfielders
5		Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane	(1999-09-06)6 September 1999 (aged 23)	Youth system
11		Sabir Bougrine	(1996-07-10)10 July 1996 (aged 26)	Neftçi
15		Fousseny Coulibaly	(1992-12-12)12 December 1992 (aged 30)	Union Monastirienne
18		Malek Mehri	(2003-10-21)21 October 2003 (aged 19)	Youth system
19		Mootez Zaddem	(2001-01-05)5 January 2001 (aged 22)	Valmiera
23		Ghaith Ouahabi	(2003-05-02)2 May 2003 (aged 20)	Youth system
25		Ghailene Chaalali	(1994-02-28)28 February 1994 (aged 29)	Yeni Malatyaspor
28		Aziz Fellah	(2002-05-09)9 May 2002 (aged 21)	Étoile du Sahel
31		Zakaria El Ayeb	(2001-01-15)15 January 2001 (aged 22)	Youth system
Forwards
3		Rached Arfaoui	(1996-03-07)7 March 1996 (aged 27)	Avenir de Soliman
7		Sharara	(1997-12-30)30 December 1997 (aged 25)	Al Ahli Tripoli
8		Anice Badri	(1990-09-18)18 September 1990 (aged 32)	Ittihad Jeddah
9		Riad Benayad	(1996-11-02)2 November 1996 (aged 26)	Paradou
10		Hamdou Elhouni	(1994-02-12)12 February 1994 (aged 29)	Desportivo das Aves
14		Rayen Hamrouni	(2003-01-29)29 January 2003 (aged 20)	Youth system
17		Zied Berrima	(2001-09-04)4 September 2001 (aged 21)	Youth system
21		Aziz Abid	(2003-04-03)3 April 2003 (aged 20)	Youth system
27		Mohamed Ali Ben Hammouda	(1998-07-24)24 July 1998 (aged 24)	Avenir de Soliman
33		Farouk Mimouni	(2001-06-13)13 June 2001 (aged 22)	Youth system
Manager		Mouin Chaâbani	(1981-06-18)18 June 1981 (aged 42)	Ceramica Cleopatra

Staff:

• Mejdi Traoui (assistant manager) (from 22 May)
• Anis Boussaïdi (assistant manager)
• Amine Ltifi (assistant manager)
• Hamdi Kasraoui (goalkeeper manager)
• Sabri Bouazizi (fitness manager)
• Aymen Mathlouthi (fitness manager)
• Yassine Ben Ahmed (doctor)
• Lassad Lamari (physiotherapist)
• Nabil Ghazouani (physiotherapist)
• Seifeddine Dziri (physiotherapist)
• Nader Daoud (assistant manager) (until 13 May)

• 
  Mohamed Amine Tougai
• 
  Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane
• 
  Sharara
• 
  Riad Benayad
• 
  Mohamed Amine Ben Hamida
• 
  Mohamed Ali Ben Hammouda

Transfers

In

Date	Name	From	Type	Source
1 July 2022	Hamza Ghanmi	Étoile de Métlaoui	End of loan	—
	Mohamed Ali Ben Hammouda	Avenir de Soliman	Transfer	[1]
28 July 2022	Riad Benayad	Paradou		[2]
	Aziz Fellah	Étoile du Sahel	Free transfer	[3]
	Mohamed Ben Ali	Club Sfaxien		[4]
	Houssem Dagdoug			[5]
4 August 2022	Yassine Meriah	Al Ain		[6]
9 August 2022	Mootez Zaddem	Valmiera	Transfer	[7]
15 August 2022	Sharara	Al Ahli Tripoli	Free transfer	[8]
20 August 2022	Zinedine Sassi	Guingamp		[9]

Out

Date	Name	To	Type
1 July 2022	Khalil Chemmam	Retirement	End of contract
	Sameh Derbali
	Abdelkader Bedrane	Damac
	Fedi Ben Choug	Hassania Agadir
	Mohamed Amine Meskini	Croissant Chebbien
	Samuel Atvati	Étoile de Métlaoui
	Nour Beji	Avenir de Gabès
	Farouk Ben Mustapha	Free agent
19 July 2022	Ilyes Chetti	Angers	Unilateral termination
28 July 2022	Kingsley Eduwo	Al Arabi	Mutual termination
5 August 2022	Moumen Rahmani	Avenir de Soliman	Transfer
15 August 2022	Anayo Iwuala	CR Belouizdad	Loan
	Percious Boah	Free agent	Mutual termination
22 August 2022	David Koffi	Avenir de Soliman	Loan
25 August 2022	Montassar Triki
27 August 2022	Badreddine Mouelhi	Olympique Sidi Bouzid	Transfer
30 August 2022	Alaeddine Marzouki	Al Ain	Mutual termination
13 September 2022	Khalil Guenichi	Avenir de Soliman	Loan
18 September 2022	Ghassen Mahersi
30 September 2022	Achref Jebri	Espérance de Zarzis
26 January 2023	Bilel Chabbar	Olympique Sidi Bouzid
27 April 2023	Cedrik Gbo	Minnesota United

Friendlies

Espérance de Tunis v CR Belouizdad

15 August 2022 Friendly	Espérance de Tunis	1–0	CR Belouizdad	Tunis
18:30	Benayad 42'	Report		Stadium: Espérance de Tunis Training Center

Espérance de Tunis v JS Saoura

20 August 2022 Friendly	Espérance de Tunis	1–0	JS Saoura	Tunis
09:00	Zaddem 43'	Report		Stadium: Espérance de Tunis Training Center

Espérance de Tunis v Asswehly

24 September 2022 Friendly	Espérance de Tunis	1–1	Asswehly	Tunis
16:00	Dagdoug 88'			Stadium: Espérance de Tunis Training Center

Raja CA v Espérance de Tunis

26 November 2022 Friendly	Raja CA	0–1	Espérance de Tunis	Marrakesh, Morocco
17:00 UTC+1		Report	Ben Hammouda 20'	Stadium: Stade de Marrakech Attendance: 0 (close doors) Referee: Karim Sabry (Morocco)

Competitions

Overview

Source: Competitions

Ligue 1

First round

Group A

League table

Results by round

Matches

Playoff

League table

Results by round

Matches

Results summary

NB: As Group A winners, Espérance de Tunis were added 4 points in the playoff that were not counted in this summary.

Tunisian Cup

CAF Champions League

Qualifying rounds

The draw of the qualifying rounds was held on 9 August 2022.

Second round

Plateau United v Espérance de Tunis

9 October 2022 (2022-10-09) First leg	Plateau United	2–1	Espérance de Tunis	Abuja
16:00 UTC+1	Onyebuchi 35' Mustapha 45+1'	Report	Badri 27'	Stadium: Moshood Abiola National Stadium Referee: Daniel Nii Laryea (Ghana)

Espérance de Tunis v Plateau United

15 October 2022 (2022-10-15) Second leg	Espérance de Tunis	1–0 (2 (a) –2 agg.)	Plateau United	Tunis
17:00 UTC+1	Ben Romdhane 83' (pen.)	Report		Stadium: Stade Hammadi Agrebi Referee: Ibrahim Nour El Din (Egypt)

Group stage

The draw of the group stage was held on 12 December 2022.

Group D

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		EST	CRB	ZSC	MSC
1	Espérance de Tunis	6	3	2	1	6	4	+2	11	Advance to knockout stage		—	0–0	2–0	1–0
2	CR Belouizdad	6	3	1	2	4	2	+2	10			0–1	—	2–0	1–0
3	Zamalek	6	2	1	3	7	9	−2	7			3–1	0–1	—	4–3
4	Al Merrikh	6	1	2	3	5	7	−2	5			1–1	1–0	0–0	—

Espérance de Tunis v Al Merrikh

11 February 2023 (2023-02-11) Matchday 1	Espérance de Tunis	1–0	Al Merrikh	Tunis
17:00 UTC+1	Tougai 90+4'	Report		Stadium: Stade Hammadi Agrebi Referee: Ibrahim Kalilou Traore (Ivory Coast)

CR Belouizdad v Espérance de Tunis

18 February 2023 (2023-02-18) Matchday 2	CR Belouizdad	0–1	Espérance de Tunis	Algiers
20:00 UTC+1		Report	Elhouni 80'	Stadium: Stade du 5 Juillet Referee: Abongile Tom (South Africa)

Espérance de Tunis v Zamalek

25 February 2023 (2023-02-25) Matchday 3	Espérance de Tunis	2–0	Zamalek	Tunis
17:00 UTC+1	Ben Hammouda 35' Ben Romdhane 90+2'	Report		Stadium: Stade Hammadi Agrebi Referee: Redouane Jiyed (Morocco)

Zamalek v Espérance de Tunis

7 March 2023 (2023-03-07) Matchday 4	Zamalek	3–1	Espérance de Tunis	Alexandria
21:00 UTC+2	Gaafar 9' Zizo 29' Jaziri 90+1'	Report	Benayad 57'	Stadium: Borg El Arab Stadium Referee: Blaise Yuven Ngwa (Cameroon)

Al Merrikh v Espérance de Tunis

17 March 2023 (2023-03-17) Matchday 5	Al Merrikh	1–1	Espérance de Tunis	Benghazi (Libya)[note 1]
15:00 UTC+2	Sérgio 90' (pen.)	Report	Ben Hammouda 23'	Stadium: Benina Martyrs Stadium Referee: Ahmad Imtehaz Heeralall (Mauritius)

Espérance de Tunis v CR Belouizdad

1 April 2023 (2023-04-01) Matchday 6	Espérance de Tunis	0–0	CR Belouizdad	Tunis
23:00 UTC+1		Report		Stadium: Stade Hammadi Agrebi Referee: Pierre Atcho (Gabon)

Knockout stage

The draw for the knockout stage was held on 5 April 2023.

Quarter-finals

JS Kabylie v Espérance de Tunis

21 April 2023 (2023-04-21) First leg	JS Kabylie	0–1	Espérance de Tunis	Algiers[note 2]
22:00 UTC+1		Report	Ben Hammouda 54'	Stadium: Stade du 5 Juillet Attendance: 47,000 Referee: Amin Omar (Egypt)

Espérance de Tunis v JS Kabylie

29 April 2023 (2023-04-29) Second leg	Espérance de Tunis	1–1 (2–1 agg.)	JS Kabylie	Tunis
20:00 UTC+1	Ben Romdhane 49'	Report	Redjem 85'	Stadium: Stade Hammadi Agrebi Attendance: 40,000 Referee: Jean Jacques Ndala Ngambo (DR Congo)

Semi-finals

Espérance de Tunis v Al Ahly

12 May 2023 (2023-05-12) First leg	Espérance de Tunis	0–3	Al Ahly	Tunis
20:00 UTC+1		Report	Tau 8', 55' Kahraba 75'	Stadium: Stade Hammadi Agrebi Attendance: 0 (close doors) Referee: Peter Waweru (Kenya)

Al Ahly v Espérance de Tunis

19 May 2023 (2023-05-19) Second leg	Al Ahly	1–0 (4–0 agg.)	Espérance de Tunis	Cairo
22:00 UTC+3	El Shahat 22'	Report		Stadium: Cairo International Stadium Attendance: 10,000 Referee: Dahane Beida (Mauritania)

Statistics

Playing statistics

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		Ligue 1		Tunisian Cup		CAF Champions League
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	TUN	Mohamed Sedki Debchi	24	0	15	0	5	0	4	0
2	DF	TUN	Mohamed Ben Ali	23	0	14	0	1	0	8	0
3	FW	TUN	Rached Arfaoui	14	0	6	0	4	0	4	0
4	DF	ALG	Mohamed Amine Tougai	33	1	18	0	3	0	12	1
5	MF	TUN	Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane	38	14	24	9	3	2	11	3
6	DF	TUN	Mohamed Ali Yacoubi	11	0	5	0	3	0	3	0
7	FW	JOR	Sharara	7	2	6	2	0	0	1	0
8	FW	TUN	Anice Badri	27	12	15	10	4	1	8	1
9	FW	ALG	Riad Benayad	27	5	15	2	3	2	9	1
10	FW	LBY	Hamdou Elhouni	35	5	23	2	3	2	9	1
11	MF	MAR	Sabir Bougrine	35	3	21	3	4	0	10	0
12	GK	TUN	Moez Ben Cherifia	18	0	10	0	0	0	8	0
13	DF	TUN	Amenallah Majhed	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
14	FW	TUN	Rayen Hamrouni	6	0	2	0	3	0	1	0
15	MF	CIV	Fousseny Coulibaly	36	0	21	0	4	0	11	0
16	GK	TUN	Hamza Ghanmi	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
17	FW	TUN	Zied Berrima	8	1	7	1	1	0	0	0
18	MF	TUN	Malek Mehri	19	0	13	0	1	0	5	0
19	MF	TUN	Mootez Zaddem	31	2	18	1	4	1	9	0
20	DF	TUN	Mohamed Amine Ben Hamida	42	2	27	2	4	0	11	0
21	FW	TUN	Aziz Abid	24	0	18	0	2	0	4	0
22	DF	TUN	Hani Amamou	15	0	9	0	2	0	4	0
23	MF	TUN	Ghaith Ouahabi	18	2	14	2	0	0	4	0
24	DF	TUN	Yassine Meriah	39	3	23	3	4	0	12	0
25	MF	TUN	Ghailene Chaalali	12	0	5	0	1	0	6	0
26	GK	TUN	Amenallah Memmiche	5	0	5	0	0	0	0	0
27	FW	TUN	Mohamed Ali Ben Hammouda	42	9	25	5	5	1	12	3
28	MF	TUN	Aziz Fellah	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
29	DF	TUN	Zied Machmoum	7	0	5	0	0	0	2	0
30	DF	TUN	Houssem Dagdoug	13	0	8	0	2	0	3	0
31	MF	TUN	Zakaria El Ayeb	9	0	8	0	1	0	0	0
32	DF	TUN	Raed Fedaa	14	0	12	0	0	0	2	0
33	FW	TUN	Farouk Mimouni	7	3	4	2	1	1	2	0
35	DF	TUN	Zinedine Sassi	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
36	DF	TUN	Raed Bouchniba	35	2	25	1	3	1	7	0
38	GK	TUN	Wassim Karoui	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	DF	TUN	Wael Chaieby	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
	DF	TUN	Bilel Chabbar‡	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0

• ^‡ Player left the club during the season
• ^y Youth team

Goals

Rank	Player	Ligue 1	Tunisian Cup	CAF Champions League	Total
1	Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane	9	2	3	14
2	Anice Badri	10	1	1	12
3	Mohamed Ali Ben Hammouda	5	1	3	9
4	Hamdou Elhouni	2	2	1	5
	Riad Benayad	2	2	1
6	Farouk Mimouni	2	1	0	3
	Yassine Meriah	3	0	0
	Sabir Bougrine	2	0	0
9	Mohamed Amine Ben Hamida	2	0	0	2
	Mootez Zaddem	1	1	0
	Raed Bouchniba	1	1	0
	Sharara	2	0	0
	Ghaith Ouahabi	2	0	0
14	Mohamed Amine Tougai	0	0	1	1
	Zied Berrima	1	0	0
Total		45	11	10	66

Assists

Rank	Player	Ligue 1	Tunisian Cup	CAF Champions League	Total
1	Hamdou Elhouni	7	1	3	11
2	Sabir Bougrine	3	1	0	4
3	Rached Arfaoui	3	0	0	3
	Mohamed Ali Ben Hammouda	2	0	1
5	Houssem Dagdoug	1	1	0	2
	Riad Benayad	1	1	0
	Raed Bouchniba	0	2	0
	Yassine Meriah	1	0	1
	Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane	2	0	0
	Zied Berrima	2	0	0
11	Mootez Zaddem	1	0	0	1
	Raed Fedaa	1	0	0
	Zied Machmoum	1	0	0
	Mohamed Amine Ben Hamida	1	0	0
	Ghailene Chaalali	0	0	1
	Anice Badri	0	1	0
	Farouk Mimouni	1	0	0
	Mohamed Ben Ali	1	0	0
Total		26	7	6	39

Cleansheets

Rank	Player	Ligue 1	Tunisian Cup	CAF Champions League	Total
1	Mohamed Sedki Debchi	7	2	2	11
2	Moez Ben Cherifia	6	0	4	10
3	Amenallah Memmiche	4	0	0	4
Total		17	2	6	25

Disciplinary record

N	P	Nat.	Name	Ligue 1			Tunisian Cup			CAF Champions League			Total			Notes
15	MF		Fousseny Coulibaly	6		1	1			2			9		1
24	DF		Yassine Meriah	4		1	1			3			8		1
19	MF		Mootez Zaddem	3		1				2			5		1
4	DF		Mohamed Amine Tougai	2	1					3			5	1
27	FW		Mohamed Ali Ben Hammouda	2	1		1			1			4	1
36	DF		Raed Bouchniba	1							1		1	1
5	MF		Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane	6			1			1			8
23	MF		Ghaith Ouahabi	5						2			7
25	MF		Ghailene Chaalali	3						2			5
20	DF		Mohamed Amine Ben Hamida	2						2			4
30	DF		Houssem Dagdoug	1			1			1			3
2	DF		Mohamed Ben Ali	1						2			3
10	FW		Hamdou Elhouni	1						1			2
3	FW		Rached Arfaoui				1			1			2
11	MF		Sabir Bougrine	2									2
6	DF		Mohamed Ali Yacoubi	1						1			2
18	MF		Malek Mehri	1									1
8	FW		Anice Badri	1									1
1	GK		Mohamed Sedki Debchi				1						1
12	GK		Moez Ben Cherifia							1			1
17	FW		Zied Berrima	1									1
31	MF		Zakaria El Ayeb	1									1

Source: TarajiZone
Only competitive matches
= Number of bookings; = Number of sending offs after a second yellow card; = Number of sending offs by a direct red card.

Notes

References

External links