Alarm at River: the Monumental pitch 24 hours before Belgrano | OneFootball

With just over 24 hours to go before the clash against Belgrano, River are aware that the Monumental pitch will not be in good condition. After AC/DC’s concerts last weekend and amid a routine maintenance process, El Millonario will return to action in the Apertura Tournament on grass that will be far from ideal. The good news is that 10 days will pass before they play at home again and, they estimate, that will be enough time for the green to come back.

As explained by the club, the board decided to bring forward a series of works on the grass that are usually carried out between April and May. Considering there was a break for the FIFA international window and, in addition, three dates were set aside for shows by the iconic hard rock band led by Angus Young, they opted to face only this upcoming match with the pitch in poor condition.

At present, the grass is in transition toward its winter version, the so-called perennial ryegrass. This process was going to have to be done sooner or later, although perhaps without the impact of AC/DC’s three concerts the deterioration would have been less noticeable. In any case, they insist that the field is even and the ball will roll without problems.

After this Sunday’s match against El Pirata, the stadium will have 10 days of rest. River will play two consecutive away matches: on Wednesday the 8th against Blooming in Bolivia, and on Sunday the 12th against Racing in Avellaneda. They will not play at home again until Wednesday the 15th, against Carabobo, on matchday two of the Copa Sudamericana. And four days later, on Sunday the 19th, they will host Boca. For those two matches, key in this stretch of the semester, they believe the green grass will look as good as ever.

Judging by recent cases with this new hybrid turf at the Monumental, whenever it looked similar to how it does now, it did not take long to recover. The last time was in November 2025, and although there was no longer any activity, that process was completed quickly. In Núñez there is optimism, and they hope that their home debut in the Sudamericana and the superclásico can be played on a pitch as smooth as a billiard table.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.