Kazakh artificial pitch raises German alarm bells

The Germans have had some recent experience on artificial grass, beating Kazakhstan in the Euro 2012 qualifiers and Russia in the World Cup 2010 qualifiers but for both matches their preparation was less than perfect.

"Against Russia the artificial pitch we trained on [in Mainz, Germany] ahead of the game was different than the one in Moscow. Now we have tried to find the same conditions," Germany assistant coach Hansi Flick told reporters on Tuesday.

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