Caf Confederations Cup draw: Hearts get Esperance

Hearts have been drawn against Esperance in the third round of the Caf Confederations Cup after the draw was made on Tuesday.

The Tunisian giants had been a surprise elimination from the Champions League when they were beaten by El Merreikh at the weekend. Esperance paid the price for conceding an away goal after losing the opening leg 1-0 and winning the second leg 2-1 at home.

This meant the North Africans - together with three other losers at the weekend - dropped to the Confederations Cup.

They have now been drawn with Hearts, Warri Wolves, Orlando Pirates and ASEC Mimosas who qualified from the second round of Confed Cup qualifiers.

The Phobians, who will play first in Tunis before the second leg in Accra, are fresh from a win against Mali's Djoliba and will relish meeting the two-time Caf Champions League winners.

The incentive at this stage is that beating Esperance over two legs takes Hearts into the lucrative money zone, where no Ghanaian team has been since Berekum Chelsea's attempt in 2012.

The draw

AC Leopards (Congo) v Warri Wolves (Nigeria) 

CS Sfaxien (Tunisia) v ASEC Mimosas (Ivory Coast)

AS Vita (DRC) v Stade Malien (Mali)

Orlando Pirates (South Africa) v AS Kaloum (Guinea)

Sanga Balende (DRC) v Zamalek (Egypt)

Raja Casablanca (Morocco) v Etoile du Sahel (Tunisia)

Esperance (Tunisia) v Hearts of Oak (Ghana) 

Al Ahly (Egypt) v Club Africain (Tunisia)

Background

The Organising Committee for the CAF Interclub competition at its meeting on Monday in Cairo approved the procedure for the draw of the CAF Confederation Cup group stage playoffs.  

The draw pit the winners of the second round of the CAF Confederation Cup against the losers of the CAF Champions League group stage playoffs.

The 16 clubs were divided into four pots based on their rankings.  Pot A contained the top-ranked teams by CAF from the Champions League losing teams namely Ahly (Egypt), Esperance (Tunisia) and AC Leopards (Congo).

They were drawn against the four lowest ranked teams from the winners of the Confederation Cup second round in Pot B. The four are ASEC Mimosas (Ivory Coast), Hearts of Oak (Ghana), Club Africain (Tunisia) and Warri Wolves (Nigeria).  

The four top ranked teams from the winners in the CAF Confederation Cup were in Pot C, thus AS Vita (DR Congo), Orlando Pirates (South Africa), Zamalek (Egypt) and Etoile Sportive du Sahel (Tunisia).

They were drawn against the lowest ranked four teams of the Champions League losing teams namely AS Kaloum (Guinea), Sanga Balende (DR Congo), Raja Athletic Club (Morocco) and Stade Malien (Mali).