Stop whingeing! Russia respond to the critics

Tottenham target Arshavin is determined to avenge England's 3-0 victory and he said: "There is all this talk about the artificial surface but we didn't like the pitch at Wembley. We found it very slippery and were falling over all the time. It was hard for us to find any studs that did the right job for us. Yes, Wembley is wide and vast and there is the spirit of football all around.But there was an issue with the pitch."

Former England skipper David Beckham, who missed the Wembley victory through injury and is sidelined again for Wednesday, has backed widespread criticism of FieldTurf, the surface used at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

Beckham caused controversy in the United States by criticising FieldTurf, which is used by four Major League Soccer teams, although not Beckham's LA Galaxy.

"As professional athletes, you can't play a game like soccer on that sort of field," said Beckham, sailing close to a charge of inconsistency as his own youth academy in London uses FieldTurf pitches.

His point,however, is that the surface is not appropriate for the professional game. "With what it does to your body, you need two or three days off after playing on it," he said.

"You can't ask any athlete to perform at a high level on FieldTurf."

England will train tomorrow morning on FieldTurf at Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College in Altrincham, although it emerged last night that the pitch in Moscow has the same rubber and sand infill but different fibres.

But those who have played on the Luzhniki pitch insist one training session would not be enough to accustom Steve McClaren's squad to the idiosyncrasies of the surface.

And Celtic midfielder Scott Brown, whose team drew 1-1 in their Champions League qualifier against Spartak in Moscow last August,warned England to expect some gamesmanship in the use of huge water cannons to moisten the pitch.

Brown said: "It's a nightmare to play on. It's not perfectly flat.They said they were going to water the pitch before the warm-up, but they didn't. They watered it afterwards and it was like playing on two different surfaces.

"We were able to pass it a little bit better when it was watered, but we found the ball bouncing awkwardly and skidding about."

Celtic manager Gordon Strachan added: "It certainly wasn't the pitch we trained on — and it caught us out for the first 20 minutes."

Stadium director Oleg Grigoryan confirmed the cannons were used to rid the 'grass' of static and revealed that the amount of watering was determined by the wishes of the home team — Torpedo, Spartak or, in this case, Russia.

Grigoryan said: "We haven't received any request from the national team yet.We decided to give them a chance to try it first in training and make up their minds."

Whatever the Russians decide, England striker Michael Owen will be treading warily after being warned not to risk his recently recovered knee on the surface.

Owen said: "I hope my knee holds up on the artificial pitch.Most people who have done their knee in the past stay away from them. It could be tricky. Russia might be a bit more used to it than us but no doubt we'll practise on it. It might hurt a bit more if you're brought down but I think we can deal with that."

England are likely to wear tights to minimise 'carpet burn' injuries, but otherwise they will have to trust to luck on the controversial surface, which will be replaced with natural grass for the Champions League final in May, in accordance with UEFA rules.

Manufacturers FieldTurf Tarkett have defended their product. Marketing director Darren Gill said: "Eighty per cent of top-flight football teams in England, Spain and France train on it and if there was a major concern about it, they would not do that.

"The Luzhniki is the most high-profile venue to use it for competitive matches and FIFA have given it their highest rating of two stars."

McClaren's assistant, Terry Venables, may be looking forward to the Luzhniki experience. Almost 40 years ago, he co-wrote a novel about football. He called it They Used to Play On Grass.