Egypt Hector Cuper has revealed that he hopes the Pharaohs will beat his homeland of Argentina if the two sides face off in the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia.

Egypt and Argentina have both sealed their places in the 2018 World Cup, which kicks off in Russia next June.

"I am now defending Egypt national team colours and if we played Argentina in the World Cup I hope to win over the latter," Cuper told a local television programme late on Thursday.

"I am now an Egyptian citizen defending Egypt's shirts colours, not Argentina."

"But I don't want to think on this situation now as I promise to introduce a good performance against any team that we will face in the World Cup finals," he added.

"Now we have a great generation of players that have superb skills as well as a fighting spirit to achieve their targets," the Argentinean coach said.

"We have to celebrate with them after they managed to please all Egyptians by reaching the World Cup finals after 28 years of absence."

Egypt meet Ghana away from home in their last Group E match on Sunday, having earned their ticket to next year's Russia finals with one game to spare.

"We will try to test new tactics against Ghana, but without losing our previous performance that we appeared with in the last games," Cuper concluded.

The Pharaohs are awaiting December's 2018 World Cup draw which will determine their opponents.

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