Uruguay national football team coach Oscar Tabarez has praised the performance of Egypt's coach Hector Cuper ahead of the two sides' game in the 2018 World Cup on 15 June.
Uruguay will head to the tournament on a winning note after beating Uzbekistan 3-0 Thursday in a chilly warm-up in front of their own fans, while Egypt failed to win any of their three pre-World Cup friendlies, drawing with Kuwait and Colombia and losing to Belgium.
"We collected more information about Egypt," Tabarez told a press conference on Friday.
"The results of the friendly games are not the matter, Egypt is a brilliant team and they have great experience with this coach [Hector Cuper].
"Cuper is a very good coach who has prestige, as he played the UEFA Champions League final as well as Italian competitions," the Uruguay coach said.
"Cuper has an injured star, Mohamed Salah, who could make the difference with team," he added.
Egypt will kick off their World Cup campaign on 15 June against Uruguay and then face hosts Russia on 19 June. Their final group-stage match will be against Saudi Arabia on 25 June.
"There's no easy competitor in the World Cup, that we knew," Tabarez said.
"We respect all the competitors; we will face Egypt in the World Cup opener and we will try to win.
"I expect the Egypt game will be difficult." the Uruguay coach added.
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