DR Congo boss Claude Le Roy admits his team lacks big-game experience heading into their must-win game against Mali on Monday, but is confident they will triumph.
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The Leopards failed to qualify for the three previous editions of the Africa Cup of Nations and as such just making it to South Africa was considered a tremendous achievement.
Thus far in the tournament, Le Roy's men first produced a creditable draw against Ghana and claimed a less-inspiring point last time out against Niger.
This string of results means that a win against Mali will see them through to the quarter-finals, a potential dream result.
"We know what we have to do, we have to win. If we don't win we will be out of the competition. It was our target first to get back into the Africa Cup of Nations and then after that step by step to get to the quarter-finals," explained Le Roy.
However, the Frenchman is aware that many of his players have not experienced such a high-pressure situation before.
"The thing is inexperience, of the 23 players in the squad, 20 are at the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time and you must have the knowledge of this competition," he remarked.
With this being said, his squad does boast a number of European-based players, one of them being Cedric Makiadi who plies his trade with Freiburg in the Bundesliga.
Makiadi is hopeful that the experience that he and others like him have gleaned in Europe will serve DR Congo well against Mali.
"I think it is important to have players who have experience in such situations, when it comes down to having to do everything for the team," explained Makiadi.
"In our team we have some players who are playing in the European leagues, you see [Dieumerci] Mbokani playing in the Champions League and [Youssouf] Mulumbu playing in the Premiership and I hope this experience will help us in the last game against Mali."
While the Leopards may enter the clash against last year's beaten semi-finalists as underdogs, Le Roy believes that they may have outside help for the game - from the crowd.
"I think it will be a great game between two teams who have a lot of respect for each other. And what may be important is that it seems like we will have a lot of fans in the stadium and they can play the role of the 12th player," he added.
By Julia Harris in Durban
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