‘A swamp’ – Rayo Vallecano star admits to pitch concerns ahead of Barcelona clash | OneFootball

Rayo Vallecano star Isi Palazón has admitted that the club’s pitch is not in a great state ahead of their upcoming showdown with Barcelona.

The subject of the state of the playing surface at Vallecas has of course dominated the headlines in Spain in the buildup to tomorrow’s La Liga clash.

As much comes after footage of the pitch was forthcoming online, highlighting a run-down, patchy surface in no condition to be hosting top-level football.

The danger to both sets of players when it comes to potential injuries has in turn been widely highlighted in the media.

And as alluded to above, late this week, a member of the attacking ranks at Rayo has himself admitted that the situation is not ideal.

Speaking during an interview with COPE, as cited by Mundo Deportivo, Isi Palazón explained:

“The pitch is a bit average. We’ve had problems at the training ground and this last week we’ve had to train in the stadium and it’s been noticeable. When you only use the stadium for games and suddenly you’re using it seven days a week, it ends up getting a bit run down. It’s a bit bad, it’s a bit slow… it wasn’t grass, it was like the grass in my garden. It feels like a swamp, the grass is soft and the ball doesn’t roll well.”

He continued:

“We feel bad because football is a spectacle and we want it to be a spectacle for the fans. We want to see good football and I think we have the team to do that. In this case, it won’t be entirely good to watch, but that’s not our fault. I’ve seen some comments from Barça saying they were worried and so on. We’re worried too, we don’t want to get injured either.”

Conor Laird – GSFN