Borussia Dortmund got more than they bargained for when they made the trip to take on Borussia Monchengladbach on Sunday — a pitch that was more suited to a cabbage patch or a farmer’s field than football.
The surface at Gladbach’s Borussia-Park home almost looked stitched together like some kind of home-made quilt.
Mario Gotze told Bild: “The first 20 minutes it was a bit like ice skating. That pitch was nearly as good as my backyard.”
Dortmund’s Twitter account put out a picture of the pitch with the message: “Lawn chess it might not be. No matter: Go Dortmund, fight and win.”
? Rasenschach wird das eventuell nicht. Egal: Auf geht’s Dortmund, kämpfen und siegen! #bmgbvb pic.twitter.com/jR0cJxBWnf
— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) February 18, 2018
While BVB coach Peter Stolger said “that lawn was a catastrophe.”
Gladbach themselves were struggling to explain why the pitch had deteriorated into such a state, with defender Matthias Ginter saying: “I don’t get it. We’ve only played three matches [this year] and are not in Europe. Why does it have to be such a field?”
Their sporting director, Max Eberl, has vowed to take action before they host Werder Bremen on March 2.
“We’ll replace it,” he said. “It’s not worthy of a Bundesliga pitch.”
Marcos Reus scored the only goal of the game to give Dortmund a 1-0 victory.
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