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Ferguson: Man Utd relaxed over playing on artificial pitch

Manchester United must play on an artificial pitch in Wednesday's Champions League clash against CSKA Moscow, but this is not a worry for boss Sir Alex Ferguson. "I have no issues with the pitch in Moscow," said Ferguson. "When Luton and QPR had them all those years ago we always played well on them.

"We had a great record at those artificial pitches and that was when the artificial pitches weren't as good. The one in Moscow has a far better covering on it.

"I watched CSKA's previous Champions League game and I didn't see any issue with it at all. It is a passing surface and we have good passers in our side."

Ferguson is expecting a stiff test against the 2005 UEFA Cup winners.

He added: "They are a very young team and they deserved to win their game against Besiktas, so it should be a good game.

"But we're in a strong position ourselves after winning our opening two games and, if we can navigate the back-to-back games against CSKA, we're through, I think.

"The Champions League for a few years now has had a tremendous amount of quality in it. I think the Russian teams in particular have improved a lot in the last few years thanks to big investment.

"There are a lot of Brazilian players in Russia now. So you can expect a difficult game there and it's a surface which we're not used to playing on."

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