JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia's Green Falcons flew to Russia on Saturday after finishing their World Cup preparations.
A tweet on the national team’s official account made the announcement: “We are here!” accompanied with a photo that says “ Hello Russia”.
The team has left for St. Petersburg after completing their World Cup preparations, with a 2-1 reversal, against Germany on Friday night and now nerves will be starting to jangle ahead of the tournament curtain-raiser.
Several pictures on the Twitter account showed the Saudi delegation in formal attire as they snapped selfies outside the national carrier airplane, breaking the design of a falcon with a body of the Saudi flag.
Saudi Arabia’s national squad will play the opening game of the World Cup against host country Russia.
Saudi Arabia are the second lowest ranked side in the World Cup — Russia are the lowest at 70 — so expectations are low, but with Egypt not in great form and without Mohamed Salah for at least some of the group stage, there is a feeling the Green Falcons could seriously contend for the second spot in the group behind Uruguay.