TP Mazembe head coach Lamine N’Diaye has discussed their approach when they take on Al Ahly in the first leg of the CAF Champions League semi-final s on Saturday, 20 April.

Since lifting Africa’s most prized club football title back in 2015, the five-time champions and former FIFA Club World Cup finalists are looking at ending what could potentially be a 10-year drought since lifting the CAF Champions League title.

Mazembe’s last continental title came in 2017 when they won the CAF Confederation Cup in succession after doing so the previous season.

“We need to be at our best. We have great respect for Al Ahly who are the most successful team on the continent. When they arrive at this level of competition, they are formidable, even more formidable than at the start of the competition,” N’Diaye said as quoted by CAFOnline.

“We expect a very difficult match. However, we have every chance. We will have to be good in both matches in order to make it to the final.”

On the approach Mazembe will deploy for the two-legged fixture, he said: “I have a lot of boys who have not yet evolved to this level. This match should not be played before the kick-off. The role of the staff is to channel their energy, to try to put things into perspective and to prepare as best as possible.

“We are going into retreat, far from the city, far from the comments. We are going to have a good clean break to recharge our batteries and prepare for this match.”

He concluded: “This is not a meeting that we are preparing for today. Since the start of the season, we have been preparing for such meetings. We are not going to change anything in our habits. We are just going to get the players back on track because we are coming off three matches that we played away. We played in Luanda against Petro and one of them was against our rivals AS Vita in Kinshasa.”