Pep Guardiola Criticizes Santiago Bernabéu Pitch Quality After Real Madrid Draw

Pep Guardiola continued his tense relationship with the media in the Spanish capital following Tuesday night’s draw against Real Madrid.

Much has been made of the roof of the Santiago Bernabéu being closed to prevent noise, but Guardiola felt there were other improvements that Real Madrid president Florentino Perez could have made.

Before the match, Guardiola was asked whether his players would try to provoke Vinicius Junior into receiving a yellow card which would result in his suspension for the second leg, a suggestion he did not take up.

A lawn problem

After the match, Guardiola was asked about the roof again, but suggested the pitch was not up to standard. “I like seeing the sky, honestly. But it’s true that it’s impressive. Now we just have to take care of the lawn, we just have to improve it. Florentino only has to worry about having a good pitch afterwards, like Madrid has always had, like a carpet.”

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Rodri Hernandez also told Diario AS that he felt the pitch was in poor condition and that had hurt Manchester City a bit, but that was no excuse. For its part, Relevo reports that the Real Madrid team was also frustrated by the quality of the pitch. It’s a chronic problem at the Bernabeu, which hasn’t been helped by the dust and dirt created by renovation work around the stadium.

2024-04-11 15:00:53
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