Vallecas’s tight pitch and tiny stands await Strasbourg in Conference League semi-final | OneFootball

Strasbourg visit Rayo Vallecano on Thursday at 21:00 in the Conference League semi-final first leg, and the Estadio de Vallecas offers a very particular test. The ground is compact, the pitch is tighter than usual, and the atmosphere is fervent.

According to L'Équipe, supporters queued along the Vallecas ticket windows like a procession for days, with only 14,708 gaining entry. In La Liga only Girona’s Montilivi is smaller, 14,624 seats, 84 fewer.

Before being Madrid’s fourth stadium after the Bernabeu, the Riyadh Air Metropolitano and Getafe’s Coliseum, Vallecas is the home of Puente de Vallecas, a working-class district of 241,000. The venue also houses table tennis, boxing, billiards and chess clubs. Hemmed in by flats behind one goal, a fourth stand has never been possible.

Posters backing Palestine and opposing the imperialist war of Donald Trump and Benyamin Netanyahou line its walls, reflecting a cosmopolitan, grassroots identity and a strong bond with the neighbourhood. The comparison with FC Sankt Pauli fits, but while Hamburg’s Millerntor-Stadion was renovated in 2015, Vallecas has not been updated since opening on 10 May 1976. Bruno Rodriguez, the only Frenchman to play for both Strasbourg and Rayo, says it still meets regulations.

FIFA’s recommended pitch is 105 by 68 metres, within a 100-120 by 64-75 range. The Bernabeu and Camp Nou follow that, Atlético’s Metropolitano is 105 by 70, but Vallecas, short on space, measures only 100 by 65. Gary O'Neil notes it is five metres shorter and three narrower than La Meinau, that the lack of space suits Rayo’s long-ball press, and that Strasbourg have trained on a reduced pitch to start adapting.

Source: L'Équipe