“We have only one thing in mind, to produce a strong performance and progress in the tournament. I am sure we will play a great game,” the Portuguese tactician told the pre-match conference on Friday.

The Pharaohs performed below-par in their opening game, losing to Nigeria 1-0 on Tuesday.

The seven-time African Champions now need to win their next two games to secure their passage to the last 16.

“Nobody is hurt more than the coach when the team is not playing good. Each game has its own conditions and strategy. We don’t want to copy other teams' style, we want to express ourselves on the pitch and play a good match,” he added.

Asked about Mohamed Salah, who barely affected the match against the Super Eagles, he said that Salah is part of the team and the most important player is the team itself.

Queiroz took another swipe at referee Bakary Gassama who officiated the game against Nigeria.

“I thought VAR was introduced to help the referee in case he did not see some situations. I cannot believe what happened, there were at least two major decisions in our favour that were turned down and that could have changed the course of the game,” he concluded.

Egypt will face Guinea-Bissau on Saturday before facing neighbouring Sudan on Wednesday 19 January in the end of their group stage games.

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