Having experienced starkly contrasting fortunes in their respective openers, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay return to Group A action with a potentially make-or-break meeting for the Asian side.

Saudi Arabia are raring to reignite their hopes of advancing by ending a winless run at the tournament that stretches back to USA 1994, when they beat Belgium thanks to Saeed Al-Owairan's famous solo strike.

The squad was on its way to Rostov-on-Don for their next Group A match against Uruguay on Wednesday.

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) said in a statement it "would like to reassure everyone that all the Saudi national team players are safe, after a technical failure in one of the airplane engines (right) that has just landed in Rostov-on-Don airport, and now they're heading to their residence safely."

One of the Saudi players, Hatan Bahbir, said in a video on the Federation's Twitter account: "We arrived safely and we are all fine... it was a simple malfunction'."

Saudi Arabia opened their 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign with a 5-0 defeat to hosts Russia on June 14.

Juan Antonio Pizzi's side dominated possession and passed the ball accurately throughout the match but their lack of urgency meant they could not bring the ball into the final third and failed to record a single shot on target all night.

Defensively, the Green Falcons were far from their best as they allowed Russia to physically dominate and score at will despite not spending extended spells of time in the Saudi defensive third.

Iury Gazinsky scored after 12 minutes and Denis Cheryshev added a second before the break after coming on as an injury replacement for Alan Dzagoev. 

Artem Dzuyba netted a third before terrific late efforts from Cheryshev and Aleksandr Golovin wrapped up Russia's first win since October to launch their Group A campaign in style. 

For Saudi Arabia it was a return to the global showpiece for the first time in 12 years, with their only previous finals wins at the 1994 World Cup.

Only South Africa, in 2010, have failed to advance from the group stage as the host nation and a seven-match winless run had ramped up the pressure on Stanislav Cherchesov's side.

Aziz Behich’s late own goal, coming after Paul Pogba’s shot deflected off his shin, was the difference between the teams following successful penalty conversions by Antoine Griezmann and Mile Jedinak for their respective sides looked set to see the points shared.

Bert van Marwijk’s side went toe-to-toe with the Euro 2016 finalists in their clash in Kazan and their showing throughout the 90 minutes has left Sainsbury and his teammates looking forward to their match with the Danes.

Jo was a surprise choice by coach Shin between the posts as the Daegu FC custodian picked up just his sixth cap for his national team ahead of more experienced duo Kim Seung-gyu and Kim Jin-hyeon.

Despite his relative inexperience, though, the 26-year-old shone in goal and made a string of saves that kept the Koreans in the game throughout the 90 minutes and he was only beaten by Andreas Granqvist’s 65th minute penalty.

IR Iran lead the group after Matchday One, which saw the Central Asians scoring a heart-stopping 1-0 win over Morocco while Spain and Portugal played to a thrilling 3-3 draw in the other match.

Up next for IR Iran are 2010 world champions Spain, who must be hurting after Cristiano Ronaldo's late free-kick not only gave him a hat-trick but salvaged a point for Portugal.