Goal in collaboration with African Football HQ , are delighted to present the latest instalment of our series celebrating the greatest club sides in the history of the continent’s game.
In this feature, we present the great Raja Casablanca side of the turn of the century, who won the last Caf Champions League of the century and reached seven African finals in seven years.
4th of December 1997, Raja Casablanca are back on the African throne after beating Obuasi Goldfields courtesy of an intense penalty shootout. The side was a perfect blend, brilliantly led by the commander Vahid Halilhodzic.
It included academy products like Talal El Karkouri, Mustapha Moustawdaa and players from Olympique Casablanca, which had merged with the Green Eagles in 1995, including Abdullatif Jrindou and Jamal Sellami enabled Raja Casablanca to become the first winners of the Caf Champions League in its new format.
They also allowed the Green Eagles to take part in and win emphatically the last edition of the now-defunct Afro-Asian Cup.
1998 saw Raja lose the continental Super Cup at the hands of Etoile du Sahel, and their Champions League title defence ended in the group stages.
Entering the 1999 edition courtesy of their brutal domination of the Moroccan league and as freshly crowned Afro-Asian champions courtesy of a 2-0 win over Pohang Steelers, Raja qualified for the group stages after a long shootout under the sun of Bamako.
A first-placed finish in their group saw Oscar Fullone’s men qualify for the final to lock horns with the tournament’s arch-favourites at that time: Esperance.
The first leg at the Pere Jego stadium ended goalless, although the guests dominated.
In a packed El Menzah stadium, and during those cherished days of Ramadan football, Fullone’s troops found themselves up against it.
Hostilities started in the worst way possible for L’Khadra as the home side was awarded a penalty. To add salt to their wounds, captain Jrindou was shown a red card.
Raja had to play more than an hour with 10 players, although a penalty beautifully saved by the future hero of this cold Ramadan afternoon, Mustafa Chadli, was a foretaste to what was waiting for the hosts at the end of the game.
Failing to break Raja down, and denied by Chadli on various occasions, Esperance’s chance to win the game in regular time was gone, and penalties were required to decide the last African champions of the century.
Raja got what they wanted by holding the trembling home team to the shootout, as pressure began to tell.
Leading 4-3 after taking all of their penalties, the Green Eagles were one penalty from pulling off the upset.
It was now the turn of Chokri el Ouaer, Esperance’s iconic keeper, to step up and fire both teams into sudden death.
source: Goal.com