Africa Cup of Nations winning coach Herve Renard is looking at past performances to motivate Zambia to finish top of Group C at the 2013 showpiece in South Africa.
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The African champions kick-off the tournament against underdogs Ethiopia next Monday and Renard is hopeful they can repeat the top-spot finishes they achieved in 2010 and 2012.
"Finishing top is going to be tough. We want to finish first in our group but it is not going to be easy to realise but that is our target," he told the Zambia Football Association website.
"In 2010 we drew our first match against Tunisia and we went on to finish top of the group. In 2012 we had a good result in our opening match against Senegal and that gave us a lot of confidence and we also finished top of our group," he said of their trail to last year's final where they beat favourites Ivory Coast in a penalty shootout.
Renard spoke highly of the under-rated East African side and says his players are fit and ready to go, although tactically they are still preparing for their opponents.
"Ethiopia is a good team and we have a lot of respect for them because they have a lot of skilled players. They drew away to South Africa in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and they qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations finals tournament after they defeated Sudan," the coach added.
"Physically we are ready for any team. Tactically and technically we need to find a winning formula. We need to learn how to finish in front of goal and how to finish off the game."
The Copper Bullets played out a goalless draw in a warm-up match against Norway on Saturday, but the French tactician jokingly excused the lack of goals.
"We did not score any goals but we are on the right track. We are keeping goals for the final tournament," he said in jest.
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