WALES stars have been handed a stark warning over the plastic perils they could face in their World Cup mission in Moscow.
John Toshack’s team were last night told their qualifying clash with Russia could be switched to the artificial turf at the Luzhniki Stadium.
“I’ve played on that pitch,” said Smertin, a team-mate of Wales midfielder Simon Davies at Fulham. “What’s it like? It’s rubbish! I played there two or three times last year with Dinamo Moscow and, to be honest, it’s not so good.
“In fact it’s quite dangerous because it’s different, your feet stick, you can’t turn quickly and you can’t turn properly as you run."
And one of the Bhoys who featured in that game last August, John Kennedy, admitted: “That pitch is nothing like grass and there is no way international football should be played on it. You think the ball is going to bounce truly in front of you, and it spins away. At other times you think the ball is spinning and it takes a dead bounce. A lot of the boys came off the field with sore backs and joints. It is a difficult surface to play on and it can make you look daft because bounces are almost impossible to judge.” Click here.
