According to UEFA rules, the visiting team will be placed on the playing ground for acclimatisation training on the afternoon before each match, which is also the best opportunity for the visiting team to have access to the playing field before the game.

The game was played on Wednesday evening, while Manchester City arrived in Madrid at noon on Tuesday and arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Tuesday afternoon for acclimatisation.

But as soon as they entered the Bernabeu Stadium, everyone in Manchester City immediately noticed a problem.

When Brian Kidd led the players on the field for acclimatization, Gao Han was called to the sidelines by assistant coaches Sergio Garcia and Buenaventura, and Buenaventura was seen kneeling on the grass, which made Gao Han very strange.

"What's going on?"

Buenaventura quickly made a measurement with his hand, stood up and shook his head at Gao Han, "The lawn is too high. ”

"Too high?" Gao Han also squatted down, reached out and pressed the turf, and gestured at the height of the turf.

"Preliminary estimates, at least fifty millimeters. Buenaventura said.

Gao Han nodded, squatted on the grass, and looked up, the turf of the huge Bernabeu stadium was very flat, so needless to say, it must be all too long.

"But it doesn't make sense, they have only played in the quarter-finals before, and ......" Sergio Garcia quickly realized the problem, "Real Madrid had a few days in the last round of the league away from home. ”

Buenaventura nodded, "Yes, there is a forage growth agent that can make the turf grow quickly in just a few days, and if Real Madrid has been using this fertilizer for the past few days, it will not be surprising at all, and in some places it may even be more than that." ”

In UEFA regulations, there is a limit to the height of the pitch on the pitch, which should be between 13 and 30 mm for artificial turf and 30 mm for natural turf, but now, the turf at the Santiago Bernabeu is more than 50 mm.

It can be said that this is a very obvious violation.

"If I'm not mistaken, the turf at the Bernabeu should have been contracted to SIS, right?" asked Gao Han.

Sergio Garcia nodded, "It's this one, that's right." ”

SIS is a company that specialises in the laying and maintenance of turf on pitches, and many teams in the Premier League use their turf and contract maintenance to them, and the company is best known for its ability to replace a complete set of turf within 24 hours, which has made their business very good.

After Gao Han became the owner, Manchester City now also uses this company's turf, and Gao Han has also dealt with them, knowing the company's ability and the quality of their turf, there is definitely no problem in this regard.

In other words, the only thing that can go wrong is Real Madrid.

In fact, the vast majority of fans tend to only care about the stars, or will care about the stadium, if you go deeper, they may care about the football or the boots, and few people will care about the turf of the stadium.

In the eyes of the average fan, it's just a green space, what's worth paying attention to?

But things often dig deep into the details, and they can be more extraordinary.

Football games are always done on the turf, and the quality of a piece of turf is also crucial to the impact of the football game itself, for example, teams that are good at passing and possessing the ball tend to prefer the grass to be more slippery and the lawn shorter, so that the ball can run as fast as possible on the turf.

But for a counter-attacking team like Real Madrid, they tend to prefer a drier and longer turf when facing teams like Barcelona and Manchester City, which can slow down the speed of the pass and help them defend and cope.

It is precisely because of the different turf conditions, high and slippery, that will affect the game, so UEFA will strictly require the implementation standards of the playing venue, but it still can't stand the home team's various and varied tricks.

For example, Manchester City, the team coached by Gao Han is often based on pass-and-control play, so whether it is the home stadium or the training ground, the height of the turf cannot exceed 23 mm, and it is generally controlled between 20 and 23 mm, and the stadium administrator also uses this for daily maintenance.

As a result, Manchester City tend to play better at City Stadiums, because they are not only adapted to the size of their home stadium, but they are also familiar with the turf of the pitch, which allows them to play to their strengths.

According to Gao Han's knowledge, Barcelona's Camp Nou has similar requirements for turf.

But there are exceptions, such as Atletico Madrid.

During the period when the Sheets Corps was coached, the height of the turf was always controlled within 23 millimeters, but during Heynckes' tenure, it was generally around 25 millimeters, and after Simeone took office, he raised the requirement to 28 or even 30 millimeters, which proves that the requirements of the three head coaches of the Sheets are not the same.

But these are relatively good, Real Madrid directly spawned the lawn to 50 millimeters this time, which is definitely excessive, and it greatly exceeds UEFA's requirements.

But the Galaxy Battleship must have been mentally prepared and could fully accept UEFA's warnings and even punishments.

"Mourinho has hollowed out his mind. Gao Han said with a smile, "Needless to say, you don't have to expect them to water the lawn tomorrow." ”

Sergio Garcia couldn't help but laugh, "He also watered and irrigated, he didn't pour sand into the lawn, you should have snickered, this guy is really ......"

In the end, the Spaniards also felt very speechless, it is really rare to be so unscrupulous in order to win.

"Then why don't you complain to the referees?" Buenaventura suggested.

According to the flow of the game, tomorrow morning, the referee will lead the referee team to inspect the home stadium, if Manchester City protests against this, and the lawn on the field is indeed too high, the referee team can ask Real Madrid to mow the lawn until it meets the requirements of the UEFA game.

"Complaints?" Sergio Garcia shook his head and said sarcastically, "If the complaint was useful, they wouldn't have done such a blatant thing, anyway, this time he was open." ”

Gao Han agrees with Sergio Garcia's judgment, whether it is the referee team or UEFA, it is impossible to put aside such a world-renowned focus because the grass is too high, which will bring huge losses to major sponsors, and UEFA can't afford it, so even if Manchester City complains and Real Madrid does not execute, the game still has to continue.

At best, they can only wait until the end of the game, Manchester City sue Real Madrid, and there is no other way.

"However, although I knew that it was useless to complain, I still did what I had to do, and I followed the process, and when I came back, I protested to UEFA, and I also asked UEFA that we asked for the lawn to be sprayed before the game and at half-time, so that they could inspect it at that time. ”

As soon as Gao Han finished speaking, Sergio Garcia and Buenaventura both looked at each other and smiled bitterly.

"Is such a request useful?"

"Regardless of whether it is useful or not, go through the process first, if Real Madrid really violates the law, then we will lodge a written protest after the game and ask Real Madrid to be punished. Gao Han said this, and smiled, "We Chinese have an old saying, how do you say it? ”

"Instead of having the mind to engage in these messy little actions, it is better to use your brains more on the technical and tactical level. ”

…………

…………

"Did he really ask UEFA to mow the lawn?"

After Manchester City finished their acclimatisation and left the Bernabeu, Mourinho was soon on the radar with a call from the stadium manager.

On the phone, he reported to Mourinho about Manchester City's adaptation training, including how many training sessions were conducted, how long, who was placed in which position and what kind of coordination, etc., and reported to Mourinho's side in great detail.

But what really interested the Portuguese came from a post-training move.

"It's true, but UEFA officials at the time said that the specific situation will not be decided until tomorrow morning, after the referee team inspects the stadium, so they did not give a reply on the spot. ”

Mourinho snorted and laughed, of course, all this was expected by him.

He has coached the Champions League for so many years, and he knows how to go through the UEFA process.

He believes that Gao Han should also be very clear, and putting forward pruning suggestions is just going through the formal process, which is better than nothing.

"What else did he say?" Mourinho asked in a deep voice.

"I also heard him say that hopefully tomorrow before the game and at half-time we will be able to water and irrigate the turf and avoid being too dry and stiff. The stadium administrator replied on the other end of the phone.

Mourinho snorted, apparently expecting this for a long time.

"He's really straightforward and follows the process. ”

"So what do we do now?" asked the pitcher.

"What should I do?" Mourinho sneered, "Ignore them, don't spray!"

"But UEFA will definitely ask about it. ”

"If they're really in a hurry, then we'll spray, but when to turn on the faucet, it's not up to us to say, and when the time comes, just find a reason to say that the faucet is broken, or some other excuse, anyway, we have to wait until before the game to start spraying, and just spray whatever we want. ”

"You have to understand that UEFA has rules that say to spray water, but when to spray, how to spray, how much to spray, these are no hard and fast rules, don't we have the final say?"

Mourinho smiled, isn't that the so-called home advantage?

"But one thing you have to keep in mind is that the lawn must never be mowed, at least until the game is over. ”

It took a lot of effort for him to come up with it, and if he had pruned it before the game, wouldn't he have wasted all his efforts?

"What if the referees are dissatisfied?"

"Let them be, let them punish after the game, can they still be suspended?"

Mourinho has already made up his mind, anyway, this time he is going to fight the cold Manchester City to the end.

It's not just about competing on the pitch, it's about going out of the pitch.

After Mourinho took over the Bernabeu, he successively took over the power of Real Madrid Atletico Madrid, especially this season, Mourinho defeated the general manager Baldano in the internal struggle of the team, and let the latter step down, and he successfully took over the power of the team at the competitive level.

The fact that Felipe Melo and Moutinho were brought in during the winter break is a testament to this.

And now, Real Madrid's athletic affairs are basically Mourinho's final say, but no one dares to disobey the instructions and arrangements he makes.

Including the various arrangements he made before the game against Manchester City this time.

(End of chapter)