ZAMBIAN soccer legend Kalusha Bwalya is brimming with confidence that the current Chipolopolo have what it takes to emulate the Class of '94 that perished in an air plane accident.

Bwalya's comments came after Zambia got their 2012 Afcon finals campaign off to a positive start when they stunned Senegal 2-1 in Bata on Saturday night.

Senegal, Ivory Coast and Ghana are among tournament favourites .

Zambia, led by their inspirational captain Christopher Katongo, showed little respect for the west Africans, who included the celebrated Demba Ba in their squad.

"We could not have asked for a better start than to beat giants like Senegal," said Bwalya yesterday.

"We played very well, in fact I thought we should have doubled the scoreline. The players are determined to make history in this tournament and we are fully behind them.

"Credit to the players and technical staff for a job well done," said Bwala, who is Football Association of Zambia president.

"We can only build on this success, but there won't be any easy games. We have to treat Equatorial Guinea and Libya the same way we did Senegal. The current team is a well-oiled machine. For us the first thing is to do well in the group stages and go to the second round.

"In the previous tournament, in Angola, we were defeated on penalties to Nigeria in the quarterfinals. We want to improve on that performance and we are aiming to go to the podium this time round."

Bwalya's sentiments were echoed by ace midfielder Isaac Chansa, who said: "The best way to honour the Zambian stars of 1994 is to do well in this tournament. Now that we have laid a solid foundation with a win over Senegal, there is no turning back.

We want to go all the way to the final, we want to enter our names into history books as the first Zambian squad to win this tournament."

The 1994 air crash happened in Libreville where Zambia where on their way to Dakar for a World Cup qualifier match.