The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) have confirmed that the next couple of months will see the Pharaohs taking on Malawi and Djibouti in international friendly matches.

New Egypt national team coach Hector Cuper is looking forward to qualifying campaigns for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and the 2018 FIFA World Cup in the coming months, and these friendly games will provide him with opportunities to experiment and get to know his squad.

Announcing the upcoming matches, EFA chairman, Gamal Allam confirmed the specific dates when Egypt will be in action in May and June.

“We talked with many countries to play friendly matches and only Djibouti and Malawi gave us the nod,” he said, according to SuperSport.

“The first match will be against Djibouti on May 21 and the second game against Malawi will be on June 8. Both matches will be in Cairo,” Allam added.

Cuper’s Egyptian national team will run two training camps during the next two months before the Nations Cup qualifiers begin.

Drawn in Group G for the Nations Cup qualification campaign, they will need to deal with 2013 AFCON champions Nigeria, Tanzania and Chad in order to qualify for the competition in Gabon two years from now.

Having failed to join the best national teams in Africa during the last three editions of the competition, Cuper has been tasked with changing that reality for the next tournament.

Their qualifying campaign will officially begin on June 14, when they clash with the Taifa Stars of Tanzania.