**Arsenal legend and football presenter Ian Wright has slammed the pitch conditions in the side’s UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter final meeting with Real Madrid last night.**
The former Gunners legend took to social media during the match to express his discontent towards the pitch, which was waterlogged and torn after an onslaught of rain in Madrid.
“This is a \*\*\*\*\*\*\* disgrace the pitches these girls have to play on,” Wright said on Instagram. “Watching the Champions League quarter final Real Madrid pitch, this is worse than Derby’s pitch the other day.”
[Embed from Getty Images](http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/2198434605)
Real Madrid’s women’s team are yet to play a match at the Bernabéu, which currently sits empty during the men’s international break. The club’s blatant refusal to provide the women with access to top quality facilities meant that the quarter final had to be played in the bog of Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano.
The Halfway Line asked Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers about Real’s refusal to host women’s games at the club’s main stadium, to which she responded:
“That’s obviously a club decision, and I’m sure that UEFA is trying to create the best conditions for the tournament, of course, weather is not always within control. I think we’ve seen a couple of games lately where the pitch conditions haven’t been great, and I think that’s the next step for women’s football to take.”
Slegers said that her team were prepared for the conditions of the pitch prior to the game, but struggled to adjust as the match progressed.
“We spoke about it with the players before the game, we knew the condition of the pitch, so we had a plan for it,” Slegers expressed.
“But then it’s always hard, because over a season and over time, you work on things and you have an identity the way you want to do things. So then reality comes and these conditions come, and all of a sudden you need to do things differently. So that’s that’s, of course, hard, but the players tried, so all credit to them for trying and the work rate. But again, I think we’re all confident that we can do something against them at the Emirates at home, because it’s only half time.”