Tunisian club Etoile Sahel closed on a second consecutive African Champions League final appearance by taking a 1-0 lead over Raja Casablanca of Morocco Saturday in the semi-finals.
Nigerian Emeka Opara snatched the 59th-minute winner before a near-capacity crowd in the 80,000-seat Mohamed V Stadium and a draw at home on October 15 will be sufficient to take Sahel through.
Based in the ancient Mediterranean town of Sousse, Etoile lost the previous final against defending champions Enyimba on penalties in Nigeria after each team won 2-1 at home.
Egyptian giants Zamalek and Al-Ahly clash Sunday night in the first leg of the other semi-final in the premier African Football Confederation (CAF) club competition.
A Marouane al-Bokri pass caught the Raja defence napping and diminutive Opara burst between Abdessamad Abdelouahed and Edgar Loue, touched the ball past onrushing goalkeeper Mohamed Chadili and slammed the ball into the net.
Etoile have never lost a semi-final tie in seven CAF competition appearances and with suspended defenders Seif Ghezal and Ahmed Hammi available for the return match, the odds are that they will maintain the proud record.
The African Champions League winners receive one million dollars and a place in the quarterfinals of the revamped FIFA club world championship which Japan host during December.
Raja suffered a serious of blows ahead of the match with travel problems delaying until Thursday the return of the team from an Arab Champions League engagement in Syria.
And a shortage of funds forced the three-time winners of the Champions League to sell the experienced trio of Amin al-Erbate, Abdellatif Jrindou and Hamid Nater to Middle East clubs.
A substantially bigger crowd than watched Raja in the group phase left hugely disappointed as not only did their heroes lose, but the showdown between two of the best North African clubs seldom rose above the ordinary.
Neither Chadili nor opposite number Austin Ejide was seriously tested in a scrappy first half and a pitch dotted with bare patches hampered the rhythm of the players.
Tunisian defender Lotfi Sellemi came closest to breaking the deadlock two minutes into first half stoppage time with a header from an Al-Bokri free kick that flew wide.
Alexandre Moldovan, the stern-faced Romanian coach of Raja, reacted to the Opara goal by introducing Malian midfielder Modibo Maiga and striker Marouane Zemmama, who is considered the rising star of Moroccan football.
While the pace of Maiga occasionally troubled the defensively disciplined Tunisians, Zemmama proved more difficult to contain and went close to levelling several times.
Nabil Masloub also threatened Etoile with a free kick from an acute angle that was heading for the net until backtracking Nigerian Ejide palmed the ball over the bar.
Impressive Al-Bokri almost gifted Raja a stoppage time equaliser as a free kick deflected off the midfielder and forced Ejide into a reflex save with the final whistle sounding soon after.