Renard: In confident mood

The Chipolopolo booked their place in the last four with a 3-0 win over Sudan in the last-eight, but will have their work cut out in Bata against a Ghana side full of household names.

The Black Stars reached the World Cup semi-finals in 2010 and coach Renard knows the threat they pose, having served as assistant to their former boss Claude Le Roy four years ago.

"It is the most important game of my career," the Frenchman told www.cafonline.com. "I experienced the semi-final as an assistant with Ghana in 2008.

"When you play at the semis, your target is to reach the final and we are going to do that.

"Ghana are the best team in terms of consistency in Africa and are favourites. I was with them in 2008 and 80% of the current side were part of that team.

"We won't give up for anything. Also, we have to be tactically efficient."

Renard warned his team should not be underestimated just because of their lack of star names.

He added: "We have no big names and the star is the team. Players like Emmanuel Mayuka, Christopher Katongo, and Rainford Kalaba are often underrated because they are not playing in major leagues abroad, but they are very good players.

"I have a good base of players who can deliver the result. I told my players we have a few days to go and they have to sacrifice for the country and make all Zambians proud.

"We have a chance to win the title. Zambia lost in two finals (in 1974 and 1994) and this generation can go the extra mile than their predecessors."

Ghana have had less time to prepare for the game, with their quarter-final - in which they needed extra-time to see off Tunisia 2-1 - taking place the day after Zambia's.

The Black Stars did not even have time to train yesterday as they had to travel to Equatorial Guinea for the semi-final.

Assistant coach Kwesi Appiah told www.ghanafa.org: "The difficult part is that most of our players have played about three or four games now and sometimes it's really difficult to get them to play at their maximum as you want in every game.

"The most important thing is making sure that they recuperate very well and make sure that they are in a good condition before the next game.

"It's not going to be easy to get everything the way you want, but we would make sure they are all fully fit for our next game against Zambia."

The winners will take on either Ivory Coast or Mali in the final in Libreville, Gabon, on Sunday.