Zorya vs Manchester United news: Pitch inspection fails to alleviate concerns game will be abandoned
Officials will be keeping a close eye on the temperature at the Chernomorets Stadium as the game nears kick-off later tonight
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Your support makes all the difference.It remains unclear whether Manchester United’s Europa League clash with Zorya Luhansk will go ahead after a pitch inspection on Thursday morning failed to determine whether the ground would be suitable to play on.
Officials will be keeping a close eye on the temperature as the game nears its 9.00pm kick-off tonight.
Despite the cold conditions, Uefa delegates expect the weather to warm in the coming hours and remain “hopeful” that the game will be played after meeting at 10am local time to assess the quality of the pitch.
The club have been blowing hot onto the pitch since Wednesday evening and reports suggest the surface has improved overnight.
Speaking to reports on Thursday morning, a Uefa official said: "The pitch is at its coldest now. The temperature is only going to rise during the day."
A Zorya spokesperson added: "Everything depends on the weather. The pitch is not brilliant at the moment. We are expecting temperatures of two or three degrees and everything should be OK.”
United players did not look comfortable as they trained on the pitch on Wednesday evening, with Daley Blind remarking it was “like a rock”.
Manager Jose Mourinho was distinctly unimpressed by the conditions and criticised Uefa for the scheduling of the fixture in his pre-match press conference.
"The pitch is hard, the pitch is icy, very hard and very icy," he said.
"I think Uefa know the conditions of the pitch and everybody knows in mid-December the conditions in Ukraine and Eastern Europe are more difficult.
"So if Uefa was worried about it they should change the fixtures and not allow the last fixtures to be played in December, if the fifth fixture was played here it would be in November, so it's a problem.”
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