Former Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos believes Atletico Madrid need to change their style of play if they are to win this season’s UEFA Champions League, Footynaija.com reports.
Atletico Madrid are through to the semi-finals after recording a 3-2 aggregate victory over Barcelona in the quarterfinals courtesy of goals from Nauel Molina, Alexander Sorloth and Ademola Lookman.
However, it could’ve easily been a different story entirely as Barcelona dominated for long periods over the two legs despite getting reduced to ten men in both games.
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Speaking to Dazn in a recent interview, Kroos pointed out that Atleti’s current style of play will be a major hindrance to their UCL title hopes as there are other teams with a better brand of football
“It’s just a personal opinion, but I think Atlético Madrid won’t win the Champions League. There are teams in the competition that play better than them.
“I think Barca was the better team, but when you spend so much time with one less player, it’s very difficult.
“Atleti always knows how to defend a result very well, and with the advantage from the first leg, plus the sending-off, they had a significant advantage to advance to the semifinals.
“Barca’s defence is very open. It happened to them last year against Inter and this year against Atleti. As I said before, if they don’t change their style of play, they’re not going to win a Champions League.”
Alongside Atletico Madrid, the likes of Arsenal, Bayern Munich and reigning European champions Paris Saint-Germain are the other teams that have also made it to the semi-finals.
Based on Opta’s probability ranking, Diego Simeone’s men are the least probable winners of this year’s Champions League out of the four semi-finalists.
Los Colchoneros will take on the Gunners in their own last four tie for an opportunity to take on either Bayern or PSG in the final.
