Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was unhappy with the state of the pitch during last night's Champions League quarter-final, calling on Real Madrid to fix the surface.
City led 1-0 and 3-2 at the Bernabeu in the first leg, only to be pegged back by the team they eliminated from last season's competition. Fede Valverde volleyed home in the 79th minute to seal a 3-3 draw for the hosts, leaving everything to play for in the return leg at the Etihad Stadium.
In the lead-up to the game, the Spanish giants saw a request approved for the roof to be closed for the game. It wasn't that change which upset Guardiola, though, but rather an apparent move away from what he previously considered to be a "carpet" of a pitch.
Guardiola had plenty of experience of the stadium when playing for and managing Barcelona. His reaction on Wednesday came from his players' experiences rather than his own, but he made his issues clear.
"I haven’t set foot on it, but that’s what the players have told me," the City boss said. "Don’t let the president take it the wrong way or let the people take it the wrong way. The field is spectacular, the locker rooms… it’s an impressive piece of work.
"I remember that Real Madrid always had very good grass, it was like a carpet, but today that was not the case. But I’m sure that they will fix it, no doubt about it and no problem."
Rodri shared the manager's concerns, arguing the surface "hurt" City. "You can’t see it from above all the time," he added. "Sometimes it seems that a grass is fine and only when you get to the pitch you realise that it is not."
After the game, Guardiola also issued a health update on a few of his players. Phil Foden made way a few minutes from time after scoring City's second goal, while Kevin De Bruyne was an unused substitute and Kyle Walker and Nathan Ake were absent altogether.
“It’s a knock," the manager told TNT Sports when asked about Foden. "He was grumpy with me when I made a sub, which means he is OK, but he made a fantastic goal.
“In the last meeting in the hotel, he [De Bruyne] was playing. He didn’t say anything to me. But he started to feel bad and bad. Vomiting when he arrived. He didn’t feel good to play.
“One of the secrets at the high level is adapting to the chaos. There’s no time to complain. Kyle [Walker] is not here, so he’s not here. Nathan [Ake] is not here, so he’s not here. Kevin cannot play, we play with 11. Hopefully he can be [back] next Wednesday."