Hassan emphasises Egypt are not at World Cup 'to make up the numbers' following Belgium draw

The Pharaohs took the lead with a superb 20th-minute goal from Emam Ashour and caused plenty of problems for the Belgians, who equalised in the 66th minute when record scorer Romelu Lukaku, just over 20 seconds after coming onto the pitch, forced an own goal from Mohamed Hany.

"I am not the one to speak about Egypt's standing. The players are of the highest quality, and we have two of the finest players in the world with us. They inspire us," he said of captain Mohamed Salah and striker Omar Marmoush.

"We are certainly not here just to fill the numbers. Victory was within our reach today."

Playing in their fourth World Cup, Egypt are aiming for their best-ever performance and got their tournament off to a strong start in Seattle, recording 14 attempts on goal and matching one of the top-ranked sides.

"This was our priority, our main focus. We were not thinking about anything else," Hassan said.

"But the draw is a win, actually, a draw against such an opponent, a major opponent. They have very, very good players."

Fearsome Salah and Marmoush

Hassan defended his choice to substitute captain and goal-scoring machine Salah when the scores were level and praised him and Marmoush for what he described as outstanding performances.

"We do not rely on a single player but on a collective of 26," he said. "Salah, Marmoush, they give everything, they were really, really giving their all with their fierce transitions."

Egypt's best World Cup campaign came in 1990, when they managed two draws and a loss, with coach Hassan himself in the team.

Hassan said Egypt's involvement in this World Cup went beyond the competition itself and was part of an effort to reshape the national team and instil the belief that they can compete in world football.

"We are 120 million people in Egypt so of course we need to have a strong squad, of course we have ambition, of course we need to represent all of these people," he said.

"I told them that we must have a new national identity for our national team... we try to work on the mentality of the players, prepare our players and try to build their confidence that they are a strong team."

Egypt face New Zealand and Iran in their other Group G matches.