Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez claims he is not making any calculations on how many points his side will need to qualify for the knock-out stages of the World Cup although he admits defeat to France in their opener would make things difficult.

Laid back: Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez is refusing to estimate how many points will be needed to qualify for the World Cup's second phase.

Tabarez and his Uruguay team open their World Cup campaign against France in Cape Town on Friday before taking on hosts South Africa and Mexico in Group A.

And the former Inter Milan boss is looking for his team to pick up at least a point against the 2006 runners-up.

''I don't want to be affected by this type of theorisation because that's going away from reality and we're going to take it game by game,'' he said.

''The aim is to beat France, with all the respect we have for them and how difficult we know it will be.

''What we will pick up from this first game will depend on the performance we put on.

''We know that with less than five points it is difficult to qualify but there have been team who with less than five points have qualified in previous tournaments.''