Libreville — Zambia are heavily fancied to continue their winning start to the Africa Nations Cup finals and beat Libya in Bata on Wednesday, virtually assuring themselves a place in the quarter-finals.

After a 2-1 win over Group A favourites Senegal on the opening day of the tournament, being co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, Zambia will be full of confidence for a much easier task.

It will be the third time in just over a year that they meet Libya. The two sides shared the same qualifying group, where Zambia finished top on points but Libya also qualified for the Nations Cup as one of the best placed runners-up.

Ironically Libya went through the group undefeated, beating Zambia 1-0 in Tripoli in late 2011 and drawing in Chingola four months ago to book their place.

Zambia's failure to score at home against Libya in October led to their Italian coach Dario Bonetti losing this job, even though he had taken Zambia to first place in the group.

Officials were unconvinced about his ability and he was not popular among the players.

The return of Frenchman Herve Renard has seemingly put an extra spring in the Zambian step and he got the tactics right against the much-vaunted Senegal on Saturday.

Renard has made clear, however, that he will not tolerate any slacking off from his players, saying he is "demanding 800 percent" commitment.

But he is unlikely to make any change from Saturday's starting line-up.

The match is also the last chance for Libya, singularly unimpressive in the opening game of the tournament against Equatorial Guinea, who caught them with a late sucker punch.

Libya will be looking for their first win at the finals in 30 years.

Their last was in the semi-final of the 1982 Nations Cup tournament, which they hosted.

Coach Marcos Paqueta would seemingly have a tough task to convince his players they can overcome Zambia, whose play on Saturday was eye-catching.

The Brazilian coach is also under fire after Libya's loss.