Real Madrid News
Real Madrid veteran opens up on Germany’s shock World Cup exit: “Shouldn’t happen”
For the second time in a row, Germany have been knocked out of the FIFA World Cup at the group stages.
Die Mannschaft, world champions in 2014, had crashed out in the first round at the last World Cup in Russia. And they have met the same fate again this time in Qatar.
Drawn in Group E alongside Japan, Germany and Costa Rica, Germany suffered a shock defeat to the Asian nation in their opening fixture and drew versus their European rivals in the second match.
So, even though they defeated Costa Rica in the last group game, it was not enough for Germany to remain alive in the competition.
And Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos, who was part of Germany’s 2014 World Cup triumph and group stage elimination four years ago, reflected on the shock exit, saying that it was not because of a lack of quality in Hansi Flick’s squad.
During his punditry stint with Magenta TV (h/t Madrid Zone), Kroos said: “Group stage knock out twice in a row shouldn’t happen to us. It’s obviously not a problem of quality in my opinion, but a level of familiarity, resilience, and automatisms.”
The 32-year-old, who announced his international retirement last year after Germany’s exit from the UEFA Euro 2020, insisted that the team should have made it past the group stages.
“With our team, we should definitely be advancing then if we get eliminated by Brazil in QF, we can say, ‘okay, Brazil had maybe eight world-class players, we only had four’ but don’t tell me we are out because we have less quality than Japan,” he said.
Kroos insisted that there was no shortage of leaders and strong personalities in the Germany dressing room, naming his Real Madrid teammate Antonio Rudiger as one among them.
“We have leaders and players who are loud on the pitch. Kimmich is sometimes almost too loud. The same goes for Rüdiger, Manu, and Thomas with their hunger, mentality & quality, they have what it takes to lead the team,” he said.
Rudiger, along with other Real Madrid stars eliminated from the World Cup – Eden Hazard, Federico Valverde and Thibaut Courtois, will soon rejoin Kroos and the rest of the group for training after a small holiday as they look to put behind the disappointment and prepare for the second half of the season.
According to a recent report from Fabrizio Romano (h/t Madrid Xtra), there is nothing concrete at the moment between Harry Kane and Real Madrid. The two parties have not held any talks and a potential transfer is distant.
Los Blancos’ admiration of the English striker is not a novel development for the Spanish giants have been monitoring his situation for a couple of seasons now.
Tottenham’s high financial demands coupled with Karim Benzema’s breathtaking form kept Kane’s pursuit out of sight, but the situation has now changed.
Real Madrid’s French striker may be the current Ballon d’Or holder but he has struggled to recreate his form this season. His subpar performances and age force the club to look for a new face and Kane is unsurprisingly back in the mix.
The England captain has a contract with Spurs that runs until 2024 and he has not agreed on a new deal with the Premier League side. His dire drought for trophies at the club level could force him to move to greener pastures and there is a long line of suitors awaiting his availability.
Manchester United and Bayern Munich both, like Real Madrid, are in need of a new centre-forward and thus join the Merengues in Kane’s pursuit.
The 29-year-old striker has started 28 Premier League games for Antonio Conte’s side this season, scoring a whopping 21 goals and providing two assists in the process. The fact that his goal tally came off a relatively low xG of 15.6 shows Kane’s effectiveness in front of the goal.
Karim Benzema is likely to renew for another season, but the summer could see the Galacticos go all out for a big-name striker. Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland are some of the other names considered, though it is clear that neither of them would arrive cheap.
