After a sterling season with Liverpool, Egypt are hoping forward Mohamed Salah finds his scoring feet this summer at the World Cup in Russia. (AFP/Paul ELLIS) |
Salah, the Premier League and African player of the year, became a national hero over the leading role he played in helping Egypt qualify for their first World Cup finals in 28 years.
"We hope that he will exploit the progress he's made as a striker at Liverpool," said Cuper on Monday (May 14).
On Sunday, Salah set a new single-season Premier League scoring record after notching his 32nd goal of the season for Liverpool, surpassing the old mark of 31 goals he had shared with Alan Shearer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez.
Prudent and reserved as ever, Argentine Cuper refrained from making any World Cup predictions for 'The Pharaohs'.
The competition will be "tough", he said of Egypt's Group A rivals Russia, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia.
"But we have hope," he added. "We're optimistic."
Egypt will play away to Kuwait on May 25, tackle Colombia in Italy on Jun 1 and then travel to Belgium on Jun 6 in three World Cup warm-up matches before travelling to Russia.
Egypt lost to Portugal (2-1) and Greece (1-0) in their last two friendlies.
What the stars mean:
★ Poor ★ ★ Promising ★★★ Good ★★★★ Very good ★★★★★ Exceptional