Freetown — With barely two days to their duel against Leone Stars of Sierra Leone in Cairo, Egypt's assistant coach Shawki Gharieb has admitted that they know little or nothing about their opponent.

According to Gharieb, because they know nothing about the team, they are going to take the match very serious because they wanted to win all the group matches and finished as the group leaders.

"Our coaching staff knows little or nothing about the Leone Stars, that is why we're taking the game 'seriously'. Our target is to win all our games without having to look for the results of the other teams and how they perform," he said.

The reigning African champions are keen to use their failure to qualify for the recently concluded World Cup as a spur to success in the 2012 Cup of Nations. The Pharaohs narrowly missed out on a place at South Africa 2010 after losing a play-off against Algeria.

Had they won their first preliminary match, instead of drawing at home, they would have qualified.

Gharieb said: "We will never forget when we drew with Zambia - we lost the race then, we have learned that the first match in our campaign is the most important - if you win the first match, you gain confidence and it makes you comfortable in the rest of the qualification."

Egypt will take on Sierra Leone in Cairo in their opening match in Group G of qualifiers for the 2012 Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon on Sunday.