Yahoo News Youri Tielemans and Unai Emery make the same point about unique Aston Villa challenge
Unai Emery and Youri Tielemans insist Young Boys' artificial pitch isn't an excuse for Aston Villa not to perform in their first Champions League league phase fixture on Tuesday night.
Villa flew into Switzerland earlier today to train on and get used to the plastic pitch at the Wankdorf Stadium ahead of the match against the Swiss Super League champions. Last year, Man City won 3-1 at Young Boys in the Champions League group stage, but manager Pep Guardiola was critical of the surface.
"I wouldn’t say there are concerns, we all played on astro turf before in our youth career," Tielemans said in the pre-match press conference. "When you get used to Premier League pitches and good grass it is different. We're training here to get ready for the surface and there will be no excuses tomorrow."
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Villa boss Emery added: "We are going to adapt. We changed a little bit our usual way for playing in Europe. Normally we have a training session in Birmingham and travel. But we decided to come to train here to know and to adapt for the synthetic pitch.
"We’re ready and we won’t use it as an excuse. I think we can play with the same personality like we do at home."
Young Boys are currently sitting bottom of the Swiss top-flight after failing to win any of their opening six league matches. However, they saw off Turkish giants Galatasaray home and away to qualify for the league phase.
After playing in Bern, Villa will have five games left to play in all competitions before the October international break.
"We all know the schedule will be very busy," Tielemans said. "There are at least two more games, we will have to manage our recovery times and pick up as few injuries as possible. It’s true the schedule is very busy.
"Football is a demanding sport, we know there are more and more competitions. Football is getting tougher every year, it’s taking it’s toll on the body but we have to make the most of our recovery moments and to hopefully perform on the pitch. Sometimes it’s very hard but it’s what we love to do. Having a good pre-season."
