Euro 2020 Qualifiers: 3 Germany World Cup 2014 winners who survived Joachim Low's cull

Modified Mar 21, 2019 03:06 GMT

Joachim Low dramatically culled some of Germany's World Cup 2014 winners last week

#2 Toni Kroos

Toni Kroos remains arguably Germany's best player

One of the few Germany players who did impress somewhat at Russia 2018 – he scored a pretty legendary last-gasp free kick to hand Germany a victory over Sweden that kept them alive in the tournament for a short while – Toni Kroos remains in Joachim Low’s plans despite being a veteran of every major tournament since the 2010 World Cup.

At 29 he’s the same age as the axed Muller, but based on his overall skills it’s clear why Low still has faith in him.

Germany just aren’t as effective without Kroos, who pulls the strings from midfield with his impressive range of passing, his ability to find teammates and create chances, and of course his knack for scoring important goals – including 2 in the 2014 World Cup semi-final as well as that free-kick against Sweden.

With a pass success rate of 93.5% in La Liga for Real Madrid, it’s obvious to anyone that Kroos’ powers haven’t begun to wane just yet. He remains a world-class talent and thus it makes total sense that Low would want to keep him around – younger talents like Maximilian Eggestein and Julian Brandt need someone to look up to, after all.

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Edited by Arvind Sriram