Liverpool could well be the best team in Europe currently but Real Madrid can beat them in tomorrow's Champions League final, according to Toni Kroos.
The Los Blancos midfielder is hoping to join an elite band of footballers to have won five Champions League winners medal in their careers, alongside the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Maldini, but is well aware that the Jurgen Klopp-guided team he will face in Paris on Saturday has moved up a level from the one he faced in Kiev four years ago, when Madrid took the trophy with a 3-1 win.
In a video call interview with former Germany and Arsenal defender Par Mertesacker, Kroos said: " I think Liverpool is even stronger than it was in 2018. I think they kept their best players and some really good ones have been added again. They have Thiago in midfield who stands back shaping play. Overall it is going very, very well for them. I think over the entire season, maybe even the best team in Europe.
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"But it’s only one game and we have showed a couple of times what we can do. We also got through last year against them in the knockout round in the quarterfinals. I can see that very clearly [it is] 50/50."
Madrid hold the all-time record for the most European Cup/Champions League triumphs with 13 titles, while Liverpool are a distant third on six. But while the Reds only lost one match on route to the Paris final and won every single one of their group stage matches, the Spanish champions had to come from behind in knockout ties three times against Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and most dramatically of course, Manchester City, before booking their trip to the French capital. Kroos admits they are qualities that his side may need against the Reds.
He said: “If you see how we got there, we had to hammer everything in several times to be able to do it at all. You only have one chance to do it and of course now we want to win the thing. You also know that we are playing against one of the best teams I think there is at the moment."
When asked by Mertesacker if he would like to play under Klopp, he added: " Who wouldn’t? I don’t know how realistic that is. It’s clear he would have to end up in Madrid at some point!"
