Egypt's national team is ready for Wednesday's African Cup of Nations test against "strong opponent" DR Congo, according to head coach Javier Aguirre, who affirmed that the team has no problems, adding that star winger Mohamed Salah is not a selfish player.
Hosts Egypt will be facing DR Congo at Cairo Stadium in the second round of the prestigious tournament's group stage.
"The team is ready for DR Congo and everything is OK, as all players are fit for the game," Aguirre said in the pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
The Pharaohs secured a narrow 1-0 win over Zimbabwe in the AFCON opener on Friday. DR Congo lost 2-0 to rivals Uganda in the opening match on Saturday.
"Our opponent is a very strong team. We have watched many of their matches and today there will be another analysis session. Our main target is to win and secure qualification for the next round," the Mexican coach explained.
"I am not worried about the harmony between my players as it will increase by playing more matches.
"We deliver good matches and the performance will be better in upcoming games.
"The match between DR Congo and Uganda was very strange as I was expecting a better performance from the Congolese team. Egypt also was due to deliver a better performance against Zimbabwe.
"We had 17 scoring chances against Zimbabwe. We are second behind Senegal who have 20 chances in the lead. My target is to reach to 25 chances in the coming matches.
"I expect that both teams (Egypt and DR Congo) will be better in tomorrow's match, as the main target of both of them is to win, with Egypt looking to secure qualification while the opponent wants to revive hopes of proceeding to next round," he said.
No problem with Warda, Salah not selfish
Recent reports claimed that Egypt's winger Amr Warda could be facing disciplinary action by the national team's technical staff after being accused of inappropriate behavior on social media after the Zimbabwe match.
"There is no problem with Warda. I don't know anything about the news of excluding him from the camp. The morale of the team is excellent and anyone who violates regulations will be omitted," said Aguirre.
"Salah works hard with team spirit and is very committed. Salah is not playing selfishly as some people say. There isn't any problem at all.
"Salah is a very important player for the Egypt team, like Cedric Bakambu is for Dr Congo, but we also have other players who can reach the goal and score like what happened with Mahmoud Trezeguet against Zimbabwe," he added.
Egypt dealt a blow when key defender Ahmed Hegazi broke his nose in the opening match, but Aguirre assured that the player will be available on Wednesday and will be wearing a protective nose mask.
Egypt, the record seven-time African champions, will faceUganda in their last Group A match on 30 June.
With Aguirre at the helm, the Pharaohs are optimistic about winning the precious title of AFCON champions for the first time since 2010, which would be their eighth victory.
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