Super Marshal

According to UEFA rules, the visiting team will be arranged to go to the competition venue for adaptive training on the afternoon before each game. This is also the best opportunity for the visiting team to get in touch with the competition venue before the game.

The game was played on Wednesday night, and Manchester City arrived in Madrid at noon on Tuesday, and on Tuesday afternoon, under the arrangement of UEFA, they came to the Bernabeu Stadium for adaptive training.

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

When Brian Kidd led the players to conduct adaptive training on the court, Gao Han was called to the sidelines by assistant coach Sergio Garcia and Buenaventura. He saw Buenaventura kneeling On the grass, this made Gao Han very strange.

"what happened?"

Buenaventura quickly showed a size with his hands, stood up and shook his head at Gao Han: "The lawn is too high."

"Too high?" Gao Han also squatted down, stretched out his hand to press the turf, and then gestured for the height of the turf.

"Preliminary estimate is 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. Needless to say, it must be 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's last league round was away from home and they had a few days."

Buenaventura nodded, "Yes, now there is a grass growth agent that can make the turf grow quickly in just a few days. If Real Madrid has been using this kind of fertilizer in the past few days, it will accelerate the growth to five Ten millimeters is not surprising at all, and it may even be more in some places.”

According to UEFA regulations, there is a limit to the height of the lawn in the stadium. Artificial turf should be between 13 and 30 millimeters, and natural turf should not exceed 30 millimeters. But now, the turf at the Bernabeu Stadium exceeds five Ten millimeters.

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

"If I remember correctly, the turf of the Bernabeu Stadium should be contracted to SIS, right?" Gao Han asked.

Sergio Garcia nodded, "It's this family, yes."

SIS is a company that specializes in the laying and maintenance of stadium turf. Many Premier League teams use their turf and contract the maintenance to them. The most famous thing about this company is that it can provide turf within 24 hours. Replacing a complete set of turf has made their business boom.

After Gao Han took over, Manchester City now uses the turf from this company. Gao Han has also dealt with them and knows the capabilities of this company and the quality of their turf. There is definitely no problem in this regard.

That is to say, the only one that can cause problems is Real Madrid.

In fact, the vast majority of fans tend to only care about the stars or the stadium. If they go deeper, they may care about football or boots. Few people care about the turf of the stadium.

From the perspective of ordinary fans, it's just a piece of green space. What's worth paying attention to?

But things often become more extraordinary when you dig into the details.

Football matches are always played on lawns. The quality of a piece of lawn has a crucial impact on the football match itself. For example, teams that are good at passing and controlling the ball often like the lawns to be slipperier and shorter. The ball can move at its fastest speed only on the lawn.

But for defensive counterattack teams like Real Madrid, when they face teams with a pass-and-control style like Barcelona and Manchester City, they often like the lawn to be drier and longer, so that the passers can pass the ball. The speed is greatly slowed down, which is conducive to their defense and response.

It is precisely because different lawn conditions, height and slipperiness, will affect the game that UEFA strictly requires the execution standards of the competition venue, but it still cannot withstand the various tricks of the home team.

For example, Manchester City, the team coached by Gao Han, often focuses on passing and controlling play, so whether it is the home court or the training ground, the height of the lawn cannot exceed 23 mm, and is generally controlled between 20 and 23 mm. Administrators also use this to perform daily maintenance.

Therefore, Manchester City often plays better at the City Stadium. That is because they not only adapt to the size of the home court, but are also familiar with the lawn of the stadium, which allows them to play to their strengths.

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

But there are exceptions, such as Atletico Madrid.

During the coaching period of the Shenlian Legion, the height of the lawn has always been controlled within 23 mm. However, during the coaching period of Heynckes, it was generally around 25 mm. After Simeone took office, he raised the requirement to 20 mm. Eight, or even thirty millimeters, which proves that the requirements of the three head coaches of the Sheet Corps are not the same.

But these are relatively good. Real Madrid directly increased the lawn to 50 mm this time, which is definitely excessive and far exceeds UEFA's requirements.

But Galacticos must have been mentally prepared and can fully accept UEFA's warnings and even penalties.

"Mourinho has really worked hard." Gao Han said with a smile, "Needless to say, there is no need to expect them to water the lawn tomorrow."

Sergio Garcia couldn't help but laugh, "He also watered the lawn and didn't pour sand into the lawn. You should have laughed. This guy is really..."

At the end of the day, the Spaniards felt very speechless. It is rare to see someone so unscrupulous in order to win.

"How about complaining to the referee team?" Buenaventura suggested.

According to the game process, tomorrow morning, the head referee will lead the referee team to inspect the home court. If Manchester City protests, and the lawn on the scene is indeed too high, the referee team can ask Real Madrid to mow the lawn until it meets the requirements of UEFA. until the league's competition requirements.

"Complain?" Sergio Garcia shook his head and said sarcastically: "If complaints were useful, they wouldn't do such a thing blatantly. Anyway, this time he took the risk."

Gao Han agreed with Sergio Garcia's judgment. Neither the referees nor UEFA would shelve such a world-famous match because the lawn was too high. This would bring huge consequences to major sponsors. UEFA cannot afford the losses, so even if Manchester City complains and Real Madrid does not comply, the game must continue.

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

"However, although I knew that complaining was useless, I still did what I had to do. I followed the procedures and then lodged a protest with UEFA. In addition, I made a request to UEFA, saying that we asked for a break before the game and halftime. Sprinkle the lawn with water and let them check 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?"

"Whether it works or not, just follow the process first. If Real Madrid really violates the rules, then we will file a written protest after the game and demand that Real Madrid be punished." Gao Han said this and chuckled, "We Chinese have an old saying. Are you telling me? I suddenly can’t remember it.”

"Instead of being too obsessed with making these messy little moves, it's better to use your brain more on the technical and tactical level."

…………

…………

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

After Manchester City ended their adaptive training and left the Bernabeu, Mourinho quickly received a call from the groundskeeper.

On the phone, he reported to Mourinho the situation of Manchester City's adaptive training, including how many trainings were conducted, how long, who was placed in what position and what cooperation, etc., and reported to Mourinho in detail. Rinho's side.

But what really interested the Portuguese came from an action after training.

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

After hearing this, Mourinho hummed and smiled. Of course, all this was within his expectation.

He has coached the Champions League for so many years, and he knows the relevant procedures of UEFA very well.

He believes that Gao Han should also be very clear. Putting forward pruning opinions is nothing more than 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 I hope we can water the lawn before tomorrow's game and during halftime to prevent it from being too dry and stiff." The groundskeeper replied on the phone.

Mourinho let out a laugh, obviously he had expected this.

"He is really meticulous and follows the process."

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

"What should I do?" Mourinho sneered, "Don't pay attention to them, don't complain!"

"But UEFA will definitely take action."

"If they are really in a hurry, then we will spray, but when to turn on the faucet, it is not up to us. Then we can just find any reason, say that the faucet is broken, or some other excuse, and it will be delayed anyway. I didn’t start spraying until before the game, and I just sprayed as much as I wanted.”

"You have to understand that UEFA has regulations that say you should spray water, but there are no hard and fast rules on when to spray, how to spray, and how much to spray. Aren't we the ones who have the final say?"

Mourinho chuckled, isn't that what the so-called home field advantage is?

"But one thing you have to keep in mind is that the lawn should never be mowed, at least not until the end of the game."

He spent a lot of effort to achieve this. If he trimmed it before the game, wouldn't he have wasted all his efforts?

"What if the referee team is dissatisfied?"

"Let them do it. If they want to be fined after the game, let them fine it. Is it possible that they can still be suspended?"

Mourinho has made up his mind. Anyway, this time he will fight to the end with the cold Manchester City.

Not only do you have to compete on the court, but you also have to do everything you can to fight for it outside the court.

After Mourinho took over the Santiago Bernabeu, he successively took over the power of Real Madrid Atletico. Especially this season, Mourinho defeated general manager Valdano during the internal struggle of the team and forced the latter to step down. , and he successfully took over the competitive power of the team.

Spending a lot of money to introduce Felipe Melo and Moutinho during the winter break is the best proof.

Now, Mourinho basically has the final say in Real Madrid's athletic affairs, but no one dares to violate any instructions and arrangements he makes.

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