BATA - Ivory Coast have a better balance between work horses and match winners allied with a steely determination to end a long drought in the Africa Cup of Nations, coach Herve Renard said yesterday.

"This is not the Ivory Coast of the past. There are a lot of new players who I'm sure not many of you knew about before this tournament," he said ahead of today's semifinal against the Democratic Republic of Congo (9pm).

"These new players worked very hard in the preparations and showed me they are able to play in the starting line-up. We have a good balance between those who work hard and those with a lot of talent. I think this combination is perfect for the Ivory Coast."

Renard, who had previously complained of a defective team spirit with too many leading players pulling in different directions, said the bad experiences for many of his squad in previous Nations Cups was now proving useful.

At the previous five Nations Cup tournaments, the Ivorians had started as favourites but crashed out on each occasion, earning them the moniker of "chokers".

"The players with a lot of experience have many bad experiences," Renard said. "But we seek to use the bad as a means to motivate and get success.

"We came here a fortnight ago with no expectations on us. No one was talking about us but this has changed over the last two weeks."