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Aston Villa’s players will be praying they avoid injuries on the synthetic pitch where the club will make its Champions League debut on Tuesday, Villans fan and former Manchester United winger Lee Sharpe has said.
Sharpe remembers Sir Alex Ferguson’s concerns over unpredictable surfaces during his playing days in Europe as part of the legendary United manager’s squad, although Villa manager Unai Emery and midfielder Youri Tielemans have been keen to emphasise that they will not make “excuses” over the turf used by Swiss club Young Boys.
“We did play on some dodgy pitches – not so much synthetic pitches, it was more potholes and the grass being left,” said Sharpe, whose achievements include a key role in United’s run to European Cup Winners’ Cup glory in 1991.
“I remember going to Honved, in Hungary, and the pitch was like a farmer’s field, it was ridiculous. The manager was warning players before they went out because they could go over on their ankles and get injured.
“Before the game, you’re thinking ‘I hope and pray I don’t get injured tonight’. You go out and just do what needs to be done and you just deal with the consequences – if you get injured, so be it.”
Young Boys vs Aston Villa
Young Boys introduced the surface at their Wankdorf Stadium home in 2014 to lower costs and help them to host other events, with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola saying grass would be “better” before his side won 3-1 in Bern last October.
Villa changed their plans to allow them to arrive early and train on the pitch, with Tielemans likening it to the astroturf surfaces their squad would have played on during their youth careers.
“The astroturf is a weird one because although you do get a true roll, it does stick a little bit,” observes Sharpe. “Your studs can get stuck a little bit, so it’s easy to get injured and it does trouble a lot of players’ backs.
“A lot of the time, when we couldn’t train outside…
Source link : https://www.101greatgoals.com/football/champions-league/aston-villa-pitch/
Author : Ben Miller
Publish date : 2024-09-17 14:13:23
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