By Business Insider Reporter
Tanzania’s football giants, Simba SC, saw their already slim hopes of reaching the CAF Champions League quarter-finals this season suffer a major blow on Sunday after surrendering a two-goal lead to draw 2–2 with Tunisia’s Esperance de Tunis in a Group D clash played in Dar es Salaam.
What began as Simba’s most convincing performance of the campaign ended in deep frustration, as the Msimbazi Reds once again failed to convert promise into a result that could revive their continental ambitions.
Backed by a vocal home crowd, Simba dominated the opening half and appeared on course for a crucial victory. Their pressure finally paid off in the 39th minute when defender Shomari Kapombe rose highest to head home, capping a spell that kept Esperance pinned inside their own half.
Moments later, Simba struck again. In the 45th minute, Yusuph Kagoma finished off a swift attacking move, exploiting space behind the Tunisian defence to make it 2–0 at the break.
At that point, Simba looked firmly in control and on their way to a first win of the group stage – one that would have reignited their push for the knockout rounds.
But the second half exposed a familiar weakness.
Esperance emerged with renewed intensity, tightening their passing and raising the tempo, while Simba gradually retreated and lost their grip on the match. The shift in momentum proved costly.
In the 64th minute, Aboubacar Diakité pulled one back from close range, injecting belief into the visitors and rattling the home side. Simba struggled to reassert themselves, and the pressure continued to mount.
The equaliser arrived in the 79th minute when Kouceila Boualia struck after a sustained spell of Esperance dominance, silencing the KMC Stadium and underlining Simba’s inability to manage the game after halftime.
Esperance nearly completed a dramatic turnaround in stoppage time when they were awarded a penalty. However, Hamza Jlassi failed to convert, sparing Simba a late defeat but doing little to ease the sense of a missed opportunity.
The 2–2 draw leaves Simba rooted at the bottom of Group D with just one point from their campaign so far, their quarter-final hopes now hanging by a thread with only two matches remaining. For a club that consistently markets itself as a continental heavyweight, the result highlighted the growing gap between ambition and execution on Africa’s biggest club stage.
Esperance, by contrast, left Dar es Salaam with renewed confidence. The point keeps the Tunisians second in the group on six points, two behind leaders Stade Malien, and their resilience could yet prove decisive in the race for qualification. For Simba, however, the story is increasingly familiar: dominance without decisiveness, promise without payoff – and a continental campaign slipping away when it mattered most.
