Amr Shaheen BBC Sport in Cairo

Mido is Egypt's danger man

The Egyptian Football Federation has announced that the national team, the Pharaohs, will play two friendly matches against Brazil and Italy sometime later this year.

"We received an offer to face Brazil in a friendly through a licensed agency and we accepted it," EFA spokesman, Medhat Shalaby, told BBC Sport.

"We want to play against the world champs. It will be a great benefit for our team and will definitely entertain our fans," Shalaby said.

Egypt v Brazil head-to-heads 29/04/60: Egypt 0-5 Brazil 01/05/60: Egypt 1-3 Brazil 06/05/60: Egypt 0-3 Brazil 17/05/63: Egypt 0-1 Brazil

The match, to be played in the Cairo Stadium, is expected to be in June, August or September.

The date of the match against Italy is still being negotiated.

Egypt have never beaten Brazil, and it will be the first time the teams have met since the sixties.

Egypt are facing the threat of not reaching the finals of the African Nations Cup for their first time in their history.

They are keen on playing as many tough friendly games as possible to try and reverse the fortunes of the team.

The Pharaohs slumped to shock defeat to Madagascar and are at the bottom of their qualifying group.