Samara stadium behind schedule

The Samara Arena is due to host four group games, including a match featuring Russia's Group A rivals, Costa Rica and Serbia, before the home nation themselves take on group favourites, Uruguay. However, at the time of writing, the pitch is yet to be laid at the 45,000 seat stadium. 

"Over the course of this project, we have spoken about delays in Samara," said FIFA chief competitions official Colin Smith.

"Those delays are still evident now even though a lot of progress has been made. There is a huge amount of work to be done."

"We would expect further progress than this," said Smith. "But what's important to us is that the stadium is commissioned on time, then we have the use of the stadium and we can install all our temporary overlay and equipment that we need for the World Cup."

Last year, officials in the city said construction work was around 30 days behind schedule, but Russia have said there are plans in place to compensate for delays.