Today’s opposition: Southampton FC

FCA will fly from their training camp in England back to Augsburg on Thursday. However, they will first face Southampton FC later today (19:45 CEST) in their final pre-season friendly.  Iconic stadium move Southampton FC, or ‘The Saints’, were founded in 1885. The club played in The Dell Stadium before moving to their current stadium, Saint Mary’s (capacity 32,505) in 2001. This relocation was particularly iconic since the club was originally formed from the St. Mary's Church of England Young Men's Association. In its beginnings, the club was even called Southampton St. Mary’s. FA Cup triumph and international football The Saints swung back and forth between the second and third tier of English football until 1966. Promotion to the then-named Football League First Division followed, in which Southampton managed to compete for an eight-year spell. They subsequently played in the second league for four years after being relegated in 1974. It was during this time that the Saints celebrated their greatest achievement, beating Manchester United 1-0 in the 1976 FA Cup final. They were again promoted to the first division two years later, where they spent 27 years. After dropping into the third tier following relegation from both the Premier League and the Championship, Southampton were finally promoted back to the Premier League in 2012. The team signed former FCA man Emile Højbjerg last season and finished in a solid 8^th place. The South England club have proved their worth on the European stage during nine different seasons in their history. Their best result was reaching the quarter finals of the 1976-77 European Cup Winners’ Cup, where they were eliminated by Anderlecht. Famous faces of Southampton FC Mauricio Pellegrino has been the coach since 1^st July 2017 and he has a strong defence at his disposal. Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Bertrand, Cedris Soares, Dusan Tadic, Nathan Redmond and James Ward-Prowse are just some examples of well-known players in Pellegrino’s team. You don’t have to look back very far to remember the great players that have graced the Saints’ red-and-white kit; Gareth Bale, Alan Shearer, Theo Walcott, Peter Crouch and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have all sported the Southampton jersey. The friendly against Southampton will be broadcast live on the official FCA Facebook page.