Paranoid Arsenal ignite bizarre 'grass war' in Madrid; Arteta left 'incredibly fuming' over huge penalty call
Arsenal officials reportedly demanded that the grass was measured in bizarre pre-match scenes at Madrid's Metropolitano Stadium on Thursday (AEST).
Guillem Balague of CBS Sports reported that Arsenal suspected Atletico Madrid had requested longer than legal grass in a bid to slow down the slick play of the Premier League leaders.
"I need to tell you about the grass war that took place just about an hour ago because Arsenal's ground staff came in thinking the grass is too high. They were not happy with it," Balague said before kick off.
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A UEFA official measures the grass in Madrid. CBS
"They asked UEFA to actually measure it. They weren't happy, they thought that it was (Atletico manager Diego) Simeone creating some dark arts.
"After a while UEFA said no, it's actually 26mm. The limit is 30mm and it goes between 21mm and 30mm. It's 26mm which, by the way, was the same when they played Barcelona here."
The first leg of a controversial Champions League semi-final finished 1-1 after penalties to star strikers Viktor Gyokeres and Julian Alvarez.
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Arsenal officials don't look happy. CBS
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was not asked about grass-gate in his post-match press conference.
But Arteta was filthy with the decision to overturn Eberechi Eze's second half penalty.
"What I am incredibly fuming with, is how the hell the penalty on Ebs gets overturned in the manner that it happened, when it's not a clear and obvious error," Arteta said.
"And this changes the course of the game. And at this level, I'm sorry, but this cannot happen."
The second leg is in London next week.
Defending champions Paris Saint-German lead the other semi-final 5-4 after a thrilling first leg win over Bayern Munich.
