DPA
Herzogenaurach (Germany)
Germany midfielder Toni Kroos is confident that the Euro 2024 quarter-final against Spain will not mark the end of his glittering career.
Kroos, 34, ended his club career with victory in the Champions League final with Real Madrid’s victory over Borussia Dortmund. He said he will quit for good after the Euros where he wants to lift the trophy with Germany on July 14.
Saturday’s date with Spain, widely considered the best team so far in the tournament, will be a huge challenge for the German team but Kroos is upbeat.
“I don’t expect it to be my last game,” Kroos told reporters on Wednesday at Germany’s base camp in Herzogenaurach.
“We have set ourselves the aim to win the tournament.”
As a result, he said he is not entering his 114th cap with “any kind of nostalgia” and insisted that reaching the last eight was not a bonus yet.
However, he still spoke of a success to have advanced because there had been plenty of doubts around the team before the home tournament.
“There were huge doubts from all sides beforehand. We achieved a certain minimum goal. You can no longer speak of a disaster,” he said.
Kroos came out of international retirement in March and then said in May he would end his career after the Euros.
He won the 2014 World Cup with Germay and many titles with Bayern Munich and Real where he had played since 2014 and won five of his six Champions League crowns.
Spain have not lost a tournament match against Germany since 1988 and beat them in both previous knock-out matches, the Euro 2008 final and 2010 World Cup semis.
