Saudi World Cup team’s plane catches fire

As if a 5-0 World Cup thrashing by Russia had not shaken them enough, Saudi Arabia suffered a mini plane scare as they landed in Rostov-on-Don on Monday, but they insisted nothing would affect their confidence when they take on Uruguay this week.

Saudi Arabia was humbled by the hosts in the tournament’s opening match and Uruguay seem an even tougher opponent for Juan Antonio Pizzi’s side in Group A today.

On Monday, Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsya said that during the landing there was a brief fire in one of the engines on the plane carrying the team and that it would investigate the incident.

Social and Saudi media footage also appeared to show one of the engines catching fire, but a spokesman for airline Rossiya denied an engine malfunction had occurred and said the fault was due to a bird strike.

“We forgot about it as soon as we got to the hotel,” Saudi midfielder Taisir Al-Jassim told a news conference yesterday.