The Women’s Champions League quarter-final first-leg between Arsenal and Real Madrid was marred by yet more controversy surrounding the quality of the playing surfaces in women’s football.
Arsenal lost 2-0 at the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano, where Real Madrid’s men’s reserves play, with Linda Caicedo and Athenea giving the Spanish side a two-goal lead heading into the return leg at the Emirates next week.
After the game, there were numerous complaints within the footballing world about the standard of the turf, and how this impacted both sides.
Ian Wright slams Real Madrid pitch
Ian Wright, who scored 185 goals for Arsenal, took to social media to criticise the conditions in Spain, which were made worse by heavy rain.
Wright said: “Watching the Champions League quarter-final. Real Madrid's pitch - this is worse than Derby's pitch the other day in the Conti Cup final.
“This is a f***ing disgrace, the pitches these girls have to play on.”
Wright was referring to Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Manchester City at Pride Park last Saturday.
After the win Chelsea manager, Sonia Bompastor, said: “I'm not sure if it was a men's final game it would be the same. We just need to make sure we have the best facilities and grass to play the games.”
Following Arsenal’s first-leg loss others bemoaned the failure to match the standards of the football to the quality of the surface.
'This pitch is awful'
“I'm watching players who usually deal with the ball well, struggle to come to terms with it in these first 10 minutes, this pitch is awful,” said former Leeds striker Lucy Ward, on TNT Sports.
Arsenal coach Renee Slegers, who was appointed permanently in January, made it clear that these standards could not continue.
She said: “Of course, the weather is not always in our control,” she said, as relayed by the BBC.
“But I think we've seen a couple of games lately where the pitch conditions haven't been great and I think that's the next step for women's football to take.
“These conditions come and all of a sudden you need to do things differently so that's hard.”
