Real Madrid will host Bayern Munich on Wednesday night at the Santiago Bernabeu for what will be a high-stakes encounter with everything on the line in the second leg of the Champions League semifinals.
Both teams played out a perfect stalemate in the first leg, drawing 2-2 in what can only be described as a suiting match and result to a battle billed as the European Clasico.
Ahead of the second leg at the Bernabeu, Bayern Munich manager Thomas Tuchel took the time to praise one Real Madrid player in particular as the key man for the Merengues in the Champions League:
“Toni Kroos has been the key for years, he has no problems with pressure and wearing this shirt. He’s so successful, has an impressive trajectory, dominates the game in his way, takes advantage of spaces. Sets the pace and take the reins of Madrid’s game. Tomorrow we can make his life a little difficult and stop him. But we don’t just play against Kroos, but against all of Madrid, which works very well, with a very flexible game.”
Bayern Munich fans can lie all they want, but everyone can see how much it burns them that Uli Hoeneß would not meet the German center midfielder’s modest contract demands and instead sold the young star to Real Madrid for a meager 25 million euros.
Since then, Kroos has gone on to be one of the bargains of the decade, winning four Champions League titles for Real Madrid. And to Tuchel’s point, he showed exactly why he was the key man against his former employers in the first leg.
Kroos, as usual, ran the show for Real Madrid and even made yet another game-changing assist in the Champions League knockouts, springing Vinicius Junior through on goal with an expertly timed and weighted splitting through ball through the middle – one of his signatures.
Tuchel knows ball, and he knows it at nearly the same level Kroos does, which is why he can so readily recognize how important the “German sniper” is to Real Madrid.
At this point, only the most basic and clueless of fans – the epitome of casuals – will neglect to see just how vital Toni Kroos is to Real Madrid, especially on these big Champions League nights against world football’s elite of the elite.
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