WORLD CUP FOCUS: Egypt's Hector Cuper extremely unhappy after defeat to Greece

by Phumzile Ngcatshe

Thursday Mar 29, 2018. 10:30

In the wake of their 1-0 defeat against Greece on Tuesday night, Egypt coach Hector Cuper was left unhappy with his players.

The Argentine boss said he had to give more players a chance to play because he wanted to watch them and measure their progress.

Cuper led his men during the recent FIFA break against Portugal and Greece, but they lost both matches as they prepare for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

In his decision to try new faces against Greece, the coach gave chances to a number of inexperienced players, namely Mohamed Awad, Ayman Ashraf, Mohamed Magdy and Hussein El-Shahat.

On the other hand, he rested experienced campaigners such as Mohamed Salah, Abdallah El-Said, Ahmed Hegazi and Ahmed Fathi, but is not happy after the loss to the Greek side.

“It was easy to just field the 11 players who start regularly for us and get a positive result, but we decided to give as many players as possible a chance to watch them closely,” Cúper told ONSport.

“I wasn’t happy with the team’s performance in the first-half, but it was a little bit different in the second-half. We became more fierce and the performance improved, but the result wasn’t positive.

“We tried to give the new players the highest number of minutes, and we tried to watch them closely over the two matches. That’s how the camp was useful.

“We don’t have time anymore. We are preparing for the final list which will participate in the World Cup.”

Egypt’s next games will be against Kuwait on May 26, before facing Colombia and Belgium on June 1 and June 6 respectively.