Bata — Zambia might have eased their way to what looked a routine win over Sudan in their African Nations Cup quarter-final on Saturday but the winners are insisting it was anything but.

"It was the game that we had expected, that means a difficult game," said winning coach Herve Renard, all smiles after a 3-0 triumph in Bata ensured his side a place in the semi-finals at the same venue on Wednesday.

"We know this team because we are playing often in the CECAFA tournaments in the east African region. Sometimes against Sudan. They don't show a lot of pace during the games but they are very skillful.

"Sometimes they can put you to sleep. When we started the second half we were sleeping a bit and then after Rainford Kalaba did some magic with his skill, he got us a penalty, we were lucky to score the second goal and with Sudan down to 10 men and us 2-0 up it was easier thereafter," the Frenchman added.

Isaac Chansa, Zambia's South African-based midfielder, also cautioned that although the side never looked in any real peril in the game they had had to be on guard.

"It wasn't as easy as it looked but we imposed ourselves on Sudan and that meant that we made it look easy. But Sudan were a good team, they had surprised every one by getting to the quarters. We took the game seriously."

It all seemed a bridge too far for Sudan, who were quarter-finalists for the first time since they won the tournament in 1970.

But their coach Mohamed Abdallah still saw their Nations Cup performance as a success.

"We did very well at the tournament to reach our first quarter-final," he said.

"We had not won a point in a single game since 1976 and we had not scored. Here we got our first goal and then our first win in 42 years. We did this with a very young team who have picked up a lot of experience.

"I have 16 new players... [since the 2008 Afcon finals] so for them to get to the quarter-finals was great. They got a lot of experience from this and a lot of ambition for the future."