Gareth Bale slams artificial pitch, hailed as “Wales’ Messi” after comeback win

After Wales beat European minnows Andorra 2-1 on Tuesday in their Euro 2016 qualifier, Real Madrid superstar Gareth Bale had nothing but bad things to say about the turf pitch.

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UEFA have only recently ruled that Andorra could host games on the 3G pitch at the Estadi Nacional and the artificial surface certainly caused plenty of issues for the Welsh.

Speaking afterwards about the state of the pitch, Bale had the following to say.

“I can’t describe how bad, bobbly and hard the pitch was to deal with,” Bale said. “We said at the start that the most important thing was to get three points. Other teams are going to find it difficult coming here so for us to get three points is important. We want to qualify and you have to come to places like this and get victories.”

The terrible turf pitch aside, Bale was hailed by his manager Chris Coleman after the match as the Welsh forward scored a stunning late free kick to give them all three points.

“There are only two players in the world, Lionel Messi and Gareth Bale, who could have done something like that,” Coleman said."Time’s ticking, the pressure’s on and wallop, it’s 2-1. Gareth was absolutely magnificent.”

With the debate about artificial playing surfaces rumbling on, especially with the 2015 women’s World Cup coming up in Canada and turf pitches being lined up there, comments like this from Bale only further reinforce the fact that grass pitches should be used for all international games. Period.

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