After having encountered an initial set back in Paris at the Charles de Gaulle Airport due to the brief time between connecting flights, another flight was immediately booked for Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, where the team landed at 15h00 Tunisian time (16h00 SA time), Vivian Casaletti reports from Tunis.

The team and technical department adapted to the circumstances and got to the hotel where they immediately had lunch and proceeded their first training session scheduled for 18h00.

Esperance booked the Football Association new premises training grounds for the team, which is located approximately 30 minutes from the Corinthia Hotel International, which is situated on the coast in Gammarth where the team is accommodated.

The training session was quite light due to the many hours of travelling, nevertheless the team demonstrated great strength and gave their all in their first training session in Tunis.

The weather is similar to SA reaching a high of 23 degrees during the day but gets quite chilly due to a cold breeze in the late afternoon.

The team has just finished their dinner and the players have retired to their rooms in order to recover from the trip and to be in top form for tomorrow’s final training before the much-anticipated game.

The fixture will be played at Rades Stadium, Esperances’ home ground that seats 65 thousand fans. Our hosts are expecting 30 thousand crowd in attendance as Saturday is a public holiday & many Tunisian have gone away for the long weekend.

The hospitality to date has been wonderful, we are accommodated in the same hotel where we stayed during the Mandela Cup fixture against Club Africaine in 2001 and most of the staff recognised us and welcomed us very warmly.