Celtic skipper Scott Brown says he hopes the new surface in Copenhagen will “play well” when the Hoops take to the field tonight.
Neil Lennon’s men are in the Danish capital where they will face off against Stale Solbakken’s men in their Europa League last 32, first leg clash.
And while VAR is likely to take the majority of the headlines pre-match, the match will also see the first use of the host’s new hybrid pitch.
Earlier this month, we told you how the Danes had used their lengthy winter break to install the new state of the art pitch – which features 95% grass and 5% material.
It is not too dissimilar from the surface our stars get to use while playing at Parkhead, and Brown admits he had a look at it when he did his pre-match press duties on Wednesday.
“We’ve been out to have a look at the pitch and it’s brand new, so hopefully it’ll play well,” he told the Scottish Sun.
“We’ll try and get a good result, a solid performance, then take it back to Celtic Park and take it from there.
“It would be huge to get an away goal and keep a clean sheet, but Copenhagen are a good side and we’ll need to work hard to do that.”
Copenhagen may lose some home edge with new pitch
Pitches can always be a bit hit or miss in their first outing so it will be worth keeping an eye on as tonight’s game unfolds.
The positive for us is that Copenhagen won’t get have played a competitive match on it, meaning that they won’t hold that same home advantage.
Of course, they’ll still have the vast majority of the Parken Stadium roaring them on tonight, but it may take them just as long as us to adjust to their surroundings once the game gets underway.
Hopefully the surface is at its best and allows us to play some of the exhilarating attacking football we have managed since the turn of the year.
How will the new Copenhagen pitch affect Celtic tonight? Got an opinion? Share your thoughts below with a comment in our new discussion forum…
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