While almost 70,000 fans at Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium will be watching the action in the Champions League final, one man will have his eyes fixed firmly on the pitch.

Matt Frost is the British specialist charged by Russian officials with creating a perfect natural grass pitch in place of Luzhniki’s usual synthetic surface for Manchester United and Chelsea to battle it out in front of a worldwide audience of up to 200 million.

The plans have not gone without a hitch. The first attempt with natural grass had to be pulled up because of concerns about the bumpy surface, forcing stadium managers to order replacement grass from Slovakia. Frost, who said that he had warned organisers about the quality of the original selection, has overseen the operation to connect together 5,890 square plastic boxes containing the new grass pitch in three days.

“It’s like a jigsaw, but it’s a pitch that can be taken up and used again,” he told The Times as workmen examined the lay of the turf. “It will be a good surface, but the best ones are the pitches that have been down for a long time. It won’t be as good as the Emirates, but it will definitely be Premiership standard.

“It will be pretty fast because the final is starting at nearly 11pm, so even if we don’t water it there will be surface moisture. It’s the only match I have done that starts on one day and finishes the next.”

Frost, 38, from Sheffield, has advised on Luzhniki’s pitch since September, working full-time in Moscow since early March. The Russians have invested £1.5 million to create a showcase pitch for the match, the biggest event that Moscow has hosted since the 1980 Olympics.

Frost admits he will be anxiously studying the performance of the pitch rather than the players for much of the final. He said: “I can read a pitch quite well because you can see how the ball is playing. If the pitch is starting to play well, then you relax and get into the match.

“If it’s not, you don't even remember what the match was like, just how the ball was playing and how the players were responding. This is very strong turf, though, so I am hoping to be able to enjoy the match.”

Frost has been preparing grass surfaces since starting out as a 16-year-old greenkeeper at his local golf course. After studying turf science and sports ground management at Myerscough College near Preston, he went on to work at the old Wembley, Ibrox, Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, and the Olympic Stadium in Athens.

“The Champions League final in Athens last year was on my pitch, but I was not involved with the game. I made myself available for this project so that I could have a Champions League final on my CV that was all mine,” he said.

Frost won’t say who he thinks will win on his pitch. He said: “I’m a Sheffield United fan, but I’ve got friends who support both sides so I’d get battered if I said who I want to win. I just want a good match, but definitely not penalties at the end. I would be dead by then.”