Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Mourinho worried frozen pitch can stall progress
MANCHESTER United’s Europa League fate will be decided against Zorya Luhansk tonight — assuming the icy pitch in Odessa has thawed and been given the green light.
A point will see United progress from Group A to the last 32, with a loss even enough should Feyenoord fail to win their match against Fenerbahce.
Zorya are already out of the competition but they restricted United to a 1-0 win at Old Trafford, playing on the kind of surface they can only dream of.
The Chornomorets Stadium pitch is frozen in places and patchy in others. United defender Daley Blind said it was “like a rock” when going out to train and the world’s most expensive player Paul Pogba laughed, as did several others.
The players’ studs clacked on a surface that faces a routine pitch inspection at 10am local time (8am GMT) and Jose Mourinho questioned why European governing body Uefa allows final group matches to be played in countries where winters hit so hard.
“The pitch is very hard, the pitch is very icy,” the United boss said. “I think Uefa know the conditions of the pitch and everybody knows that in midDecember the conditions in Ukraine and Eastern Europe are more difficult.
“So if Uefa was worried about it, they should change the fixtures and not allow the last fixtures to be played in mid-December.
“If the fifth fixture is the last fixture here, it would be the end of November and not mid-December, so I think that’s the problem.
“I think the stadium is beautiful, it’s new, it’s well taken care of.
“The pitch is the same. They are trying, they are putting some warmth on the top of it, but the pitch is very difficult.”