Barcelona’s Ernesto Valverde was left fuming at the state of Real Valladolid’s pitch during their 2-1 win in La Liga and feels the club kept in that condition to stop his side.
Real Sociedad president Jokin Aperribay is optimistic that the club will be able to host Barcelona on Sept. 15 despite renovation work being carried out at their Anoeta stadium.
La Liga gave Sociedad permission to play their opening three league games away in order to have time to do the majority of the work.
This week the club posted photographs of progress, with 70 percent of work — including the installation of a new pitch — expected to have been completed by the time Barcelona are due to visit.
“No one said it was going to be easy to arrive at Sept. 15, but we will do so for sure,” Diario Vasco reported Aperribay as saying.
“We are working intensely. Everything La Liga has told us to do, we are going to carry it out. We know there is still a lot left to do but we will complete the work.”
Aperribay did not confirm or deny reports that La Liga officials plan to visit the Anoeta on Monday to check progress.
📸 ¡Así está Anoeta en la actualidad! 😍 #FuturoAnoeta https://t.co/lwIb69aS9P
— Real Sociedad Fútbol (@RealSociedad) August 28, 2018
“They have told us what we have to comply with respect to their side in order for the game to take place,” Aperribay said.
“The pressure is there and has been for the past four months, which is brutal, but we believe we are meeting the deadlines.”
La Liga reportedly want to avoid a repeat of situations experienced at Rayo Vallecano and Real Valladolid, who did not request a change of venue for their opening league games despite renovation work being done on their grounds.
Rayo’s stadium has been closed until at least next month because of safety concerns related to renovation work, with fans complaining that it was in a dangerous state during the match against Sevilla on the opening weekend.
Valladolid are expected to be fined by La Liga over the state of their pitch during the 1-0 defeat to Barca last weekend.
Meanwhile, Everton manager Marco Silva has said he does not want Sandro Ramirez, linked with Sociedad, to leave after the 23-year-old impressed in Wednesday’s 3-1 Carabao Cup win over Rotherham.
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