TEHRAN – Iran national football team head coach Dragan Skocic criticized the pitch of the Al Muharraq Stadium ahead of Hong Kong match.

Iran will resume the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification with a match against Hong Kong in Group C on Thursday.

Iran coach is not satisfied with the pitch and says that he has never seen the pitch like this before in his whole career.

“There is no excuse but the pitch is very bad. I’ve never seen the pitch like this before. I invite you to see that. I was not allowed to check the pitch after our arrival and this is an interesting story,” Skocic said.

“We are a strong team and are here to win our matches but I’m not satisfied with the pitch. We are not allowed to host our matches in Iran and Asian Football Confederation has awarded the right to Bahrain but we are disappointed with the turf,” he added.

Iran defeated Hong Kong 2-0 in September 2019 however the Croat says they have no information about the East Asian team.

“Hong Kong have not played since last year and it makes our job difficult. Our players must just concentrate on this match. We respect Hong Kong but want to beat them” Skocic concluded.