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Milner stunned by poor pitch

02 Mar 2010 - 10:55:29

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Aston Villa midfielder James Milner has expressed his amazement at how bad the Wembley pitch was for Sunday's Carling Cup Final against Manchester United.

Milner hopes it will be in better shape on Wednesday when England take on Egypt in a friendly international but was shocked by its poor state for United's 2-1 victory.

"You work as hard as you can to get to a Final and it's one of the worst pitches you play on all year," he said. "It was worse than the couple of lower league team's pitches we've played on, to be honest.

"Wembley's the home of England. You want the best surface possible and, at the moment, it isn't quite there.

"It was very difficult to play on. It was slippy, cutting up, and hopefully it can improve because it wasn't good. There's been a lot of rain so maybe it was poorer on Sunday than it has been.

"But, when I've played there before, I've never thought, 'this is a great surface'. Growing up and watching games at the old Wembley, everyone says it was like a carpet. In a cup final, you want to be playing in a great stadium, which it is, on a great pitch.

"I'm not a groundsman but, if you compare it to somewhere like Arsenal, that's one of the best surfaces you'll play on. If they could get it anywhere near the same as that, we'd be well happy."