Kroos reveals Kimmich's nightly words

sport1.de Kroos reveals Kimmich's nightly words • 10 hours • 4 minutes reading time In the joint podcast "Einfach mal Luppen", Toni and Felix Kroos talk about the dramatic European Championship exit, a possible penalty shootout and physical reactions. After the bitter European Championship quarter-final exit against Spain (1:2 after extra time), Toni Kroos gave another insight into how the German national team reacted immediately to the premature end of the tournament in the joint podcast with his brother Felix ("Einfach mal Luppen"). The 34-year-old, whose remarkable career ended with the final whistle as announced, also revealed personal details. "You sit together for a moment at night and don't say: 'Good night, that's it now!' Jo Kimmich then said a sentence that reflects what everyone felt," said Kroos about the period after the dramatic failure. The star player of FC Bayern "has already had a few tournament disappointments - and so he said: 'This time it was the first time that you didn't have the feeling that you hadn't done everything to be successful.' Until now he had always said: 'We could have done more there, maybe we collapsed there - but that wasn't the case this time.'" "The best half hour of the tournament" For Kroos too, it had long been clear: "What we conveyed - and the Spain game was the best proof of that: you may not be the better team for 90 minutes against such an opponent. But everyone left everything on the pitch." Even after conceding the goal, the DFB team had "the best half hour of the tournament": "We had five or six clear chances and scored the goal with a lot of belief at the end - we deserve a lot of credit for that. You can see how the combination of will and quality can bring about such things.” In the end, however, it was “a lucky punch,” “because we could have already prepared for the penalty shootout.” Would Kroos, who was suffering from cramps and appeared physically exhausted at the end of the 120 minutes, have taken the shot himself? Would Kroos have taken a penalty at the European Championships? "I would have liked to have taken that with me," said the now departing Real Madrid midfield star, but at the same time qualified it: "If I had made it to the point - I mean, from the halfway line to the penalty spot, that way." Kroos then described the return to his Spanish homeland as a somewhat bizarre experience: "Then I come home (to Madrid, editor's note), and half an hour later I'm back on the football pitch in the garden - two against two, Finn (Kroos' son, editor's note) was waiting." The veteran added: "But I couldn't - I wanted to go after Finn, but it didn't work, I had to stop." It was "really crazy how the head controls the body. If we had made it through, I would have been physically fit for the semi-final against France. But I haven't been able to take a single step in the last two days, everything hurt from head to toe." "Dude, let your body be a body" It's also strange that Kroos tried to run on the treadmill for half an hour shortly afterwards: "Then I said to my body: 'Dude, wake up now.'" A statement to which Kroos' brother Felix reacted with a mixture of bewilderment and amusement: "Now I'll tell you something: Dude, let your body be a body! Put your body away like you put your cell phone away.” Toni Kroos emphasised: “That was important to tell my head: ‘That’s enough now, man!’ It wasn’t about staying fit, but about saying: ‘Wake up now, pull yourself together.’ And my head was also in a rut for the last two days.” Kroos continued: “But I know this 1000 percent: If we had progressed, I would have marched again.” After the kick with his son, however, he instead “slept for three hours in the living room, just like that. I was at the end.” The bus ride from the quarter-final venue in Stuttgart back to the DFB base in Herzogenaurach was tough: “The disappointment was insane. But you don’t sit there for three hours and be calm.” According to Kroos, these are also moments “in extreme situations in which you sometimes get to know each other even better”. Everyone had “a lot of fun on the trip – and everyone wanted the trip to continue.” Disappointment? “You can’t even imagine it” Even the reserves, some of whom didn’t even play, like Robin Koch from Eintracht Frankfurt. "Pascal Groß was so incredibly disappointed, you can't even imagine it," Kroos said to his brother. "He talked so much, even though he didn't play much. In these bad moments, those are also nice moments. You noticed: This is a group of good guys. Julian (national coach Nagelsmann, editor's note) can also feel confirmed in how he put this squad together." Kroos' conclusion: "That was good, but I still felt like shit afterwards!"