Jwaneng Galaxy will tomorrow afternoon, make their first appearance in the CAF Champions League group stages as they take on Espérance Sportive de Tunis (ES Tunis). Kabelo Boranabi Galaxy is in oil-rich, Tunisia and they will need to drill deep in their reservoirs against the four-time CAF Champions League winners in the first of the six group stage matches. The local side reached the group stages after a brave fight against continental giants, Simba SC. An away 3-1 win ensured that Galaxy eliminated Simba SC after a 3-3 aggregate score, but the local sailed through on the away rule. Now, the next stage of the Champions League has taken the Galaxy Stars to the Tunisian cold front at the Hamadi Agrebi Olympic stadium. Unlike, in Botswana, Tunisia is mid-through the winter season, recording temperatures of around 10ºC. It is a different type of climate and Galaxy’s public relations officer, Tankiso Morake is not worried as he said the team made the trip to the north of Africa early to acclimatise to the conditions. “Tunisia is in the winter season, very cold in the early morning and the evening. Obviously, we came from hot weather, real summer period and to mitigate that we came on Wednesday to acclimatise. It should not affect that much, as we planned. At the moment we have no injuries in the team, we are healthy and ready to battle. We had no (positive COVID-19) cases upon arrival and we are adhering to the health protocols to take [care] of ourselves,” Morake said from Tunisia. As brave as the Galaxy Stars may be, the quest for the maximum points tomorrow is a huge one. Galaxy faces an ES Tunis side that is currently leading the Tunisian league. The team is not as fierce upfront scoring 10 in seven games but they have closed shop at the back as they have only conceded three in the local league. ES Tunis also has a goal in this edition of the Champions League while they are yet to concede. The last year’s semi-finalists played a round of games less than Galaxy due to finishing inside the top four last year. The local side on the other hand will be confident, as they have managed to find some bit of consistency in recent league matches. Galaxy is unbeaten in the last five games as striker Thabang Sesinyi found the back of the net seven times. Kick-off is 3pm local time.
