Toni Kroos must re-tune his radar to keep alive Germany’s hopes of becoming the first country since Brazil in 1962 to retain the World Cup.
Germany’s entire game revolves around the Real Madrid star, whose former club-mate Stefan Reinartz told Standard Sport is “the best central midfielder in the world”.
Reinartz, who played alongside Kroos at Bayer Leverkusen in 2009-10 before injuries forced him to retire at the age of 27, added: “At any point, you could blindfold him, give him a pen and ask him to map out the positions of all 22 players on the pitch. He always makes the right decision.”
However, that was not the case after 30 minutes of their match against Sweden on Saturday, when a rare passing error from Kroos led to Ola Toivonen’s opening goal.
Kroos was then involved in Germany’s equaliser from Marco Reus before his stunning free-kick, in the fifth and final minute of stoppage time, sealed a crucial victory.
“Of course the first goal is my fault. No question, but you’ve then got to have the balls to play like that in the second half,” said Kroos about the Sweden game to German public broadcaster ARD.
The win was deserved in the opinion of coach Joachim Low, with Germany travelling to Kazan next to play South Korea on Wednesday in their final game in Group F, where each of the four countries involved can still qualify.
Germany must win by two or more goals — or better Sweden’s result — to guarantee qualifying. Such are the permutations, a defeat would not necessarily mean Germany exit the competition, either. Since the World Cup group stages were introduced, Germany have never gone out at this stage of the competition.