Real Madrid legend teased his club and Germany teammate Antonio Rudiger and once more left his ... [+]
Real Madrid legend Toni Kroos teased his club and Germany teammate Antonio Rudiger while once more leaving his future open following a dramatic Champions League quarterfinals win over Manchester City on Wednesday.
Despite arguably being outplayed by the competiton holders in the Bernabeu and Etihad, with the stats swinging heavily in the favor of Pepe
Carlo Ancleotti noted that everyone had written the La Liga leaders off following a 4-0 loss on English soil in the semifinal second leg last term.
Yet after Los Blancos battled through 210 minutes including extra time on a 4-4 scoreline across both quarterfinals legs and prevailed on penalties, the Italian was right in saying, "Never consider Madrid dead because Madrid never dies".
As Ancelotti had already taken more attacking players off such as Kroos, Vinicius and Rodrygo, penalty kicks were left to defenders such as Nacho and his center back partner Rudiger.
Excellent across the 3-3 draw in the Spanish capital last week and the 1-1 stalemate in Manchester last night, Rudiger converted the winner past Ederson to guarantee that Madrid won 4-3 from the spot and headed through to the next round.
Speaking in the mixed zone post-match, Kroos teased his locker room colleague.
"He was the only one who I didn't have confidence in during the penalty shootout," the number 8 said with a laugh.
On social media, Rudiger has also poked fun at the ice cold playmaker by sharing a photo of Kroos about to pile on him celebrating his deciding goal and asking: "You can show emotions?"
Probed on his future, which is up in the air given his contract expires on June 30, Kroos said "I don't know yet" as per what his next step will be.
One thing for sure is that 14-time winners of the competition Madrid will now face the club he joined them from in 2014.
"Bayern is coming, they have beaten a great Arsenal and it is dangerous because Bayern only has the Champions League left now," Kroos noted.
"I haven't thought about the match yet because we have a Clasico [against FC Barcelona] in four days, but it will be very difficult for sure," he predicted.
