Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk has stated the shameful state of the Volksparkstadion pitch ahead of his team’s 2024 European Championship opener against Poland on Sunday.
Both sides have voiced concerns about the state of the turf and none of them held their past pre-match training session at the stadium in Hamburg.
Speaking at a press conference, Van Dijk said it was similar to the pitch used for the Dutch’s friendly against Germany in Frankfurt in March.
“We don’t know exactly yet whether the pitch is very bad.
“It looks like the pitch is the same as for the match in Frankfurt when we played against Germany.
“The top layer will probably loosen quickly. That is of course a shame, but both teams will have to deal with it.”
The Netherlands held their final training at their team base in Wolfsburg before making the trip to Hamburg.
“We have chosen to do the last training in Wolfsburg,” coach Ronald Koeman said.
“We believe that you can do much more towards a match than when you train in the stadium.”But in the end we should not have trained anyway because of the turf.”
