Plastic Pitch Is No Excuse For Failure

These are the words of Gareth Barry, well close enough, as he talks about our tricky trip to Moscow.

Speaking to the Sunday Mercury Barry talked from his experience of playing on the artificial surface at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow for England, but has insisted it up to the players to familiarise themselves with the differences and simply put – to cope with it.

“It is quite a difficult surface because you`re just not used to playing on it. You`re playing in moulded boots rather than your studs, which the majority of players wear.”

Adding that despite it being different they will at least get a day to train before the game adding “It can`t be used as an excuse.”

Whilst most fans viewed the 1-1 draw with CSKA as a disappointment given the number of chances we had, Barry believes the second leg is set up nicely for a claret and blue win.

The second leg should definitely be more open, the onus will be on CSKA to come out and attack us which suits us down to the ground. We showed their defence can be breached and yes we created more than enough chances to secure progression, so those chances will come again in the second leg.

This time we just have to take them.