Jean-François Pérès and Cyrille de la Morinerie (special envoys to Vienna), edited by Gauthier Delomez
For its penultimate match of the season, the France team faces Austria on Friday evening in Vienna, in a stadium where the lawn has been marked by the appearance of a mysterious hole, as big as a soccer ball. football, in the center of the field. The holding of the match was still validated by UEFA.
It is an unusual affair that cast doubt for a few hours on the holding of the Austria-France match on Friday evening. A big hole the size of a football, and more than 30 centimeters deep, appeared in the center of the lawn of the Vienna stadium, where the match is to be played. This hole is due to the torrential rains that have fallen in recent days on the Austrian capital.
The stadium is only 200 meters from the Danube, and the river has risen sharply. The soils are waterlogged. Also, a team come specially from Germany has X-rayed the area concerned. A huge square of grass five meters by five has been laid and hastily packed. It is easily seen because it has a different color.
Training with a few drops of rain from @French team before #AUTFRA@Europe1pic.twitter.com/X0l1ayoGpy
— Cyrille de La Morinerie (@Morinerie) June 9, 2022
The lawn validated by experts
UEFA has given the green light for the match to take place on Friday, when this holeshot issue can potentially be very problematic for the players. At a press conference, the goalkeeper France’s Hugo Lloris team laughed it off, believing it was a photomontage. For his part, Didier Deschamps is convinced that everything will go well. “UEFA did what was necessary to bring in the experts and validate the match tomorrow (Friday). We will adapt, it will be the same for the Austrians”, notes the coach.
“From the moment that UEFA validates, it means that for them there is no risk of playing on this lawn”, continues Didier Deschamps. In addition to the possible holes, the Blues will also have to pay attention to the trap. Kylian Mbappé, Adrien Rabiot and N’Golo Kanté are very uncertain. The France team will have to forget the two recent poor performances for this match which will be the penultimate of this interminable season.