Europa pitch will be brutal
MANCHESTER UNITED head for Holland this week – and an artificial pitch that has been described as the worst in the country.
United meet AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League on Thursday night, but the game is being played 70 miles away from the city, at the 15,000capacity Kyocera Stadium in The Hague.
That means Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team will have to negotiate a treacherous plastic pitch, laid in 2013 for the world hockey championships, which is infamous in Holland for being rock hard.
The badly-worn surface will soon be relaid – after complaints from ADO Den Haag about having to play their home games on it.
ADO captain Aaron Meijers said: “We all get aches after training or playing.
“We are so keen to return to real grass. We can’t wait to make a proper sliding tackle.”
AZ are having to play away from their own ground after the roof of their stadium collapsed.