Ƶ’s Green Falcons fly to St. Petersburg ahead of World Cup 

The Saudi Green Falcons pose for a souvenir picture with the crew of a Ƶn Airlines plane at a German airport on Saturday before taking off for St. Petersburg in Russia for the World Cup. (Twitter photo)

JEDDAH: Ƶ'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.  

Ƶ’s national squad will play the opening game of the World Cup against host country Russia.  

Ƶ 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.