Real Madrid’s Toni Kroos saves Germany’s blushes in stoppage time

Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos came in clutch for his national team with a brilliant free kick. Here’s a look at his incredible contribution as his team struggles.

Tonis Kroos’ incredible set piece from the side of the 18 yard-box gave Germany a crucial three points. But don’t let the mastery of the Madrid orchestrator fool you. Germany struggled for most of the match and conceded early on.

Match Recap

After losing 1-0 to Mexico in the first match of the 2018 World Cup campaign Germany was in deep trouble. Their second match would be against Sweden, a game that many were sure would be easy for Nationalelf. Today’s game though showed us the outcome and a very different storyline.

From the start of the match Sweden came out strong and unlike many other teams who were classified as the underdog, they refused to sit back. With chances early on for the Swedes, it was only a matter of time before the capitalized.

Oddly enough it was a misplaced place from the pass master Toni Kroos which resulted in the goal.  His blunder had his defense scrambling as Sweed Vikto Claesson beautifully assisted his teammate Ola  Toivonen. Ola neatly dinked the ball over Manuel Neur into the far post of the net giving his side the 1-0 lead.

The facial expressions of the German players were incredibly worrisome as the looked dejected. After what must have been a fiery lockerroom during half-time, Joachim Low’s men came out on the front foot. Three minutes into the second half Germany brought the game level at 1-1 with a neat finish in the box by Marco Reus.

Germany would still struggle through the game with misplaced passes and a weak backline. This sort of performance would be acceptable by smaller sides, but not the World Champions especially not Germany.

Both teams would make use of all their substitutes in an effort to get a grip on the match. The referee dished out three yellow cards, a pair that saw defender Jérôme Boateng sent off in the 81-minute.

With the pressure and less than 10 minutes plus stoppage time to go Germany hustled their way up the pitch trying to find a way through the Swedish defense. Germany would be just inches away from claiming the lead at times beating the keeper but not the post. As the match told us yesterday it was the brilliance of one man that changed it all the course of history.

Sweeden would concede a freekick just outside the 18-yard box on the left side. With just 2 men in the while and the Sweedish keeper’s area packed like a sardine can the pressure was on.

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Marco Reus and Toni Kroos would team up for an ingenious one-two free kick. A gunslinger shot curled right around the two-man wall and into the far post of the Sweedish net. Not only was the German team gleamingly celebrating, social media also lost its head.

As a result, Germany is now in second place with three points and have one game remaining. Had they not won yesterday the chances of them advancing to the next round were looking grim, to say the least.

Former Real Madrid teammate Alvaro Arbeloa pointed out that it is another Madrid player saving his nation in the World Cup. Translati.- Hey, Toni Kroos your Real Madrid buddies are being the best in the world, something to say? – give me a minute”

Toni Kroos Brilliance

While Toni Kroos made a mistake that cost his team a goal he was still marvelous for most of the game. Form the start of the second half the midfielder ushered his team forward and dropped back deep when necessary.

When people say that Toni Kroos is a lazy midfielder and just makes short passes have them read the next few paragraphs. Kroos had the highest number of touches in his team with 144. From 144 touches Kroos made 121 passes of which 93.4% were accurate.

The midfielder would fire off 17 long balls, all of which were on target and completed. In addition three of Toni’s six crosses were on point and met up with an attacking player.

There is no doubt in this mans brilliance, Madrid fans should be the first to know this. They see him in all his glory week in and week out.

Toni is known for his ability to engineer the attack but the industrious player also helped his team in their defensive duties. Kroos had three tackles and one interception in the match.

Kroos was so good even his old team Bayer Leverkusen wanted a piece of him. After his goal their official Twitter account made this post:

Even Germany’s official Twitter account lost it and was absolutely speechless Tweeting this:

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