2024-07-18 14:49:39
All of football Germany was discussing the handball in the European Championship match against Spain. Toni Kroos, on the other hand, held back – until now.
The controversial handball by Spain’s Marc Cucurella in the European Championship quarter-finals is still causing a stir two weeks after Germany’s elimination from the tournament. Experts and fans discussed the incident for days, but one player initially held back: Toni Kroos. The 34-year-old was standing nearby – but has now revealed that he didn’t see anything.
“I have to say, I didn’t see it in the game at all,” said the departing national player when asked by a young fan at the “Toni Kroos Academy” in Cologne. There he and his brother Felix Kroos recorded their podcast “Einfach mal Luppen” in front of an audience. “I wasn’t in a position to see that it was a relatively clear handball,” admitted the 34-year-old. Kroos “mistakenly trusted” him.
At that moment, a player is less angry because he cannot judge it himself. Kroos then turned his attention to the Englishman Anthony Taylor: “He was of the opinion that he didn’t even have to look at it,” said Kroos, also referring to the video referee who did not intervene. But: “I only got angry when I saw it after the game,” Kroos continued.
And that’s not all. Kroos has a guess as to why the referee decided not to watch the scene again on the screen. “I think the problem is: he knew that if he looked at it, he would have to give it – and I had the feeling that he didn’t really want to give it in a game like that.”
Instead, the German team conceded the decisive goal just a quarter of an hour later and was eliminated early against the eventual European champions.