Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola made use of his post-match interview on Tuesday night to reveal his disappointment with the state of the playing surface at the Santiago Bernabéu.
City, of course, were back in action a short time ago.
After sending the La Liga leaders packing from the competition last season, the Sky Blues made the trip to Spain’s capital once more, for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie with Real Madrid.
And Guardiola’s troops, to their credit, went on to play their part in a pulsating affair.
Owing to goals on the part of all of Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Joško Gvardiol, City ensured that they will head to The Etihad for the return leg with narrow favourite status, owing to a 3-3 stalemate.
And yet, whilst the action on the pitch over the course of the 90 minutes could hardly have been of a much higher standard, one individual who was evidently not overly happy with the conditions the sides were forced to play in comes in the form of the aforementioned Pep Guardiola.
Speaking to the media on the back of the full-time whistle in Madrid, the former Barcelona boss was asked for his thoughts on the new-look Santiago Bernabéu.
And, in his response, Guardiola suggested that the playing surface was up not up to scratch:
“The stadium is impressive, but Florentino [Pérez] needs to fix the grass now.”
He continued:
“My players told me the pitch isn’t good. Don’t take it the wrong way, the new stadium is amazing. But I remember Madrid’s pitch as a carpet. They’ll fix it, I’m sure.”
Conor Laird | GSFN
