Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos has revealed that Los Blancos players celebrated Barcelona’s 8-2 humiliation against Bayern Munich in last week’s Champions League quarter-final.
Although Madrid were already out of the competition, they have won three titles since Barça last lifted the trophy, while they also usurped the Catalans as LaLiga champions.
Discussing the reaction of the Madrid players to the defeat with his brother Felix on their podcast ‘Einfach mal Luppen’, Kroos refused to give too much away but admitted that nobody was unhappy seeing it unfold as they sent messages to each other in the squad’s WhatsApp group.
“I shouldn’t say too much, but you can imagine that there was no grief. There was a bit of schadenfreude,” the former Bayern midfielder explained.
Kroos also revealed it wasn’t the first time that Madrid players had joy at Barcelona losing a high-profile European game, with a similar reaction when they lost 3-0 against Roma in the 2018 quarter-finals, having been leading 4-1 on aggregate from the first leg.
“People ran up and down in front of my room and screamed. I didn’t see who, but it must have been some of the other players,” he said.
Barcelona also suffered a heavy defeat in the Champions League last season, losing 4-0 to Liverpool on that occasion, despite holding a healthy 3-0 lead from the first leg.
Prior to that in 2016/17, Barcelona were knocked out of Europe after losing 3-0 to Juventus.
The club’s last Champions League win came in 2015, which was also the last time they reached the final – their only final appearance since 2011.
