Toni Kroos Reveals Why Arsenal Could Panic Against Real Madrid in the UCL Quarter-Final Second Leg
Real Madrid suffered a heavy 3-0 defeat against Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final first leg at The Emirates. The second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu is set to take place on April 16.
Los Merengues have a mountain to climb in the second leg as they look to create another famous comeback. It's a long way to go for Carlo Ancelotti's team but club legend Toni Kroos thinks Arsenal's lack of experience at this level could make them panic.
He reminded that with Real Madrid, there's always an expectation that they'd score. He told Einfach mal Luppen (via Sport):
The emotional factor will be a huge decider against Arsenal. The team has to decide it in the first 15 minutes. That’s how it should go ideally. You need to make Arsenal, who have no Champions League quarter-final experience, especially not in Madrid, think: ‘woah, it’s not over yet’Toni Kroos
Kroos, however, pointed out Real Madrid's dejected body language in the first leg. He claimed that the team almost surrendered to the defeat and wanted Arsenal not to score a fourth goal, which he found to be weird. Kroos said:
But you felt that from the boys’ body language, they’re saying ‘Please don’t score the fourth goal’. And that’s very weird, because it was never this way. It didn’t matter against who, there were some matches which we lost, but that’s not how it was.Toni Kroos
Real Madrid's recent form has been erratic as they also lost a La Liga home clash against Valencia last weekend (2-1). Los Blancos play Deportivo Alaves away on April 13.
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Apratim is an experienced sports journalist having covered European and World Football, Combat Sports, Olympic Sports, and more for online media publications like Sportskeeda, EssentiallySports, and more. He is currently an MSc. in Sport Marketing student at Loughborough University, London.