Saturday’s game is the first leg of the Final of this year’s tournament, with the second leg slotted in for Sousse next week.
Diables Rouges (Red Devils) have not won an away match played outside Tunisia this year in this competition, suffering three defeats and also playing out three draws.
Their only away win in this competition this year was a 1-0 group stage victory against fellow Tunisians Esperance – a match played in Tunis just 150km from their base in Sousse.
Whenever they have made use of their passports to travel they haven’t won.
Etoile were in Luanda, Angola in April for their second leg of their round contest with Benfica de Luanda, but came out with a 1-1 draw which enabled them to move to the next stage having won at home.
Next up was another trip down south across the Equator to Tanzania for a second round tie with Young Africans where Etoile emerged with another 1-1 draw before winning at home in the return leg.
In the play-off round The Red Devils lost 2-0 away to Raja Casablanca in Morocco before winning 3-0 at home in the second leg.
Then in the group stages they won in Tunis against Esperance but then came stuck in Egypt against Al Ahly (1-0), drew with Stade Malien in Bamako while they suffered a 3-0 defeat to Zamalek in Egypt in the semi-finals, having already won 5-1 at home in Sousse.
Despite that poor away form, Eric Tinkler insists he is not being swayed into underestimating them, with Etoile coach Faouzi Benzarti an experienced coach who is familiar with what it takes to conquer the continent.
In contrast, they have started off positively in the Tunisian Ligue 1, winning four of their opening six League matches while they were crowned the Tunisian Cup champions at the end of August.
Ironically, Pirates have been hobbling for much of their domestic League campaign, having already lost four out of the nine opening games they have played to date and getting knocked in the first round of the MTN8 and in the Telkom KnockOut semi-finals.
In Africa, Bucs have been commanding and actually stand as the best team having won 10 of their 14 matches – drawing two and losing another two, both defeats to Egyptian giants Zamalek in the group stages.
Pirates have been able to score in all 14 games played in this competition to date, piling up 28 goals – which is also the best by any club in this competition this year.
The plus for Pirates is that they have not lost on their last two visits to Tunisia (1-0 win over CS Sfaxien this year and 1-1 draw against Esperance de Tunis two years ago).