Toni Kroos expressed his satisfaction after defending champions Real Madrid scored 2-0 in the Champions League quarter-final first leg against Chelsea. At the same time, the 33-year-old warned against too much security.
“I think we can be satisfied. We controlled the game well. That’s a good result, we’ll take that with us first,” said the midfield star of the Spanish record champions at DAZN.
The second leg next Tuesday at Stamford Bridge in London will be a very difficult task: “We saw today that Chelsea really had opportunities. They’re a bit stronger at home than away.”
Karim Benzema (21st minute) and Marco Asensio (74th) scored for the Madrilenians, who were superior over long stretches. Chelsea ended the game with a man down after Ben Chilwell saw a red card for an emergency brake (59′).
“A balancing act” after red for Chelsea
After the dismissal, Kroos believed the royals “could have provoked one or the other chance more”. But the majority is always “a balancing act, where you have to look: Okay, let’s go full on the second, third, fourth – or do you say that before you run into something else,” said the 2014 world champion. He was with a pass rate of 95 percent again one of the guarantors of success and also involved in the preparation of the second goal by Asensio.
There were two or three moments “where we didn’t stop the counterattack quite as well. We had a good goalkeeper in the back again, you have to admit that,” Kroos analyzed. “Basically, however, we were the better team that controlled it, that had our moments.” With a little more calm and precision in the last third, “we could have created a few more chances. But all in all we controlled it, the energy was good, the duels were very good,” said Kroos.
In the second leg you have to get through the first 15, 20 minutes. “We have to fight back, that’s what it’s going to be about. You have to be there and accept the duels just like here. And then I have a good feeling,” said the 33-year-old, who has won the premier class five times – four of them with Real.
