Four Southampton players will represent the club at the FIFA World Cup which starts this week.
Maya Yoshida, Dusan Tadic, Jan Bednarek and Cedric have all travelled to Russia with their respective countries and are likely to be involved in the group stage matches that start this week. So when will the Southampton fans be able to see their men in action?
The tournament starts tomorrow as Russia kick proceedings off in their opener against Saudi Arabia at 4pm.
Cedric is likely to be the first Saints player in action. He and Portugal face their first clash against Spain at 7pm on Friday, and they could have received a boost today as the Spaniard’s coach, Julen Lopetegui, was sacked.
Serbia then play at 1pm on Sunday afternoon in Group E against Costa Rica, and Dusan Tadic will hope to be involved as one of the team’s most creative attacking forces.
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Maya Yoshida will then start his World Cup campaign in Japan’s match versus Colombia next Tuesday as Group H gets underway. Yoshida was an unused substitute in their recent 4-2 friendly win over Paraguay but is likely to start during the tournament.
Jan Bednarek’s Poland also get their campaign underway on the same day and face Senegal in the same group. He got 53 minutes under his belt in their 4-0 friendly win over Lithuania.
Yoshida and Bednarek could face each other on the 28th June as both Japan and Poland clash in their final group game. This match could even be a decider for who goes through to the knockout stages in one of the tournament’s most evenly contested groups.
Cedric’s second and third group games come as Portugal play Morocco and Iran on Wednesday the 20th and Monday the 25th respectively.
Tadic and Serbia face further matches against Swtizerland on Friday the 22nd and South American giants Brazil on the 27th.
If any of the four progress to the knockout stages, the round of 16 ties start on the 30th June. Quarter Finals and Semi-Finals then arrive before the big Final on the 15th July.