Toni Kroos aims to prove Germany’s doubters wrong in their Euro 2020 opener against world champions France on Tuesday. Germany have their work cut out in Group F at the European Championship with holders Portugal and Hungary to come after the mouth-watering tie against the French in Munich.
Kroos has bounced back after testing positive for Covid-19 last month and played in Germany’s 7-1 thrashing of minnows Latvia on Monday in their final friendly warm-up.
Yet the Germans have struggled to recover from the humiliation of crashing out of the group stages at the 2018 World Cup and Kroos knows they have a point to prove. “We don’t have to hide against France. Both squads are strong,” Kroos said at the German’s base in Bavaria.
“Before the 2018 (World Cup) tournament, we were made out to be stronger than we were, now it’s different.”
The Germans are bidding to win a record fourth European Championship title on Joachim Loew’s swansong after 15 years as head coach, yet confidence in the ‘Mannschaft’ remains low. Morale among German fans was further dented this season by humbling defeats to Spain and minnows North Macedonia.
Uncharacteristically, the German defence, normally their main strength, is shaky having leaked 20 goals in their last 13 internationals. While France have climbed to second in the world rankings, just behind Belgium, Germany have dropped to 12th position. As a result, Real Madrid veteran Kroos says the Mannschaft wants to throw down a marker and are “looking forward” to facing the French. The 31-year-old expects Germany to win “every single game” of the European Championship. “I’ll never start a tournament with the expectation ‘let’s just win a few points’. If that was case, I wouldn’t be back,” Kroos insisted.

Scotland can be giant-killers at Euro 2020, says Clarke
Scotland manager Steve Clarke is aiming to restore the team’s reputation as giant-killers as they prepare for their first match at a major tournament for 23 years. The Scots, who used to be regulars on the global stage, qualified for the coronavirus-delayed Euro 2020 via the play-offs.
Now Clarke wants Scotland to punch above their weight by emulating famous results from their past against the likes of the Netherlands and Spain.
Scotland take on the Czech Republic on Monday before looking for their first victory over England since 1999, and then aim to defend their unbeaten record against 2018 World Cup runners-up Croatia.
Clarke feels his squad, captained by Liverpool defender Andy Robertson, has what it takes to ruffle a few feathers during the tournament. “We want to start doing what Scotland used to do many years ago, which is always have a result up our sleeve which would upset one of the big guns,” he said.
“Hopefully we can produce that in the tournament.” Scotland have won their past three meetings with the Czechs and Clarke feels a repeat result would put them in a good position to get out of the group stage for the first time.