Guus Hiddink: The pitch quality affected our performance

Anzhi Makhachkala manager Guus Hiddink commented on his team’s defeat to Rubin Kazan, stating that the poor conditions were part of the reason for the loss.

«It was a deserved victory of Rubin. We opened the first half not in the way we planned. In the first part we failed to attack. The opponent was more active near our goal, though they didn’t really create goalscoring opportunities. It goes without saying that the quality of the pitch surface affected our play…» the Dutch manager said.

«We began the second half in the same manner. Rubin managed to score a free kick goal and we failed to react properly. Having conceded the goal we tried to play more open football and sent Samba to the position of a centre forward, however we didn’t create any real chances at the other end. In general the game looked relatively even but Rubin was more powerful,» the former Chelsea boss concluded.