Kroos doubts Barcelona again: "I find it very hard to see them winning the Champions League"

Toni Kroos doesn't hold back when it comes to Barcelona. The German, who retired in 2024 after lifting his last Champions League trophy with Real Madrid, has once again questioned whether Hansi Flick's team can win the tournament with the style they play. He said as much on the podcast 'Einfach mal Luppen', and he didn't mince words.

For Kroos, the issue isn't Barcelona's quality, it's the risk they take on every time they step onto the field. "I find it very hard" to picture the Catalan club lifting the trophy, he explained, given how exposed they leave themselves match after match.

Barça always try to create more chances than their opponents, but in the Champions League, you're up against teams that can score several goals in a single gameToni Kroos

The former German midfielder went further, zeroing in on something he says keeps repeating itself whenever Barcelona face top tier opposition in Europe: the lack of a plan B when things get difficult.

You also come up against opponents who defend exceptionally well and don't let you play your usual game. And in those situations, you need to know how to defend yourselfToni Kroos

An admirer of Lamine Yamal

What's striking is that Kroos isn't speaking out of contempt. Quite the opposite: he was completely won over by Lamine Yamal after watching him perform at the Metropolitano. There, the Barça academy product delivered, in Kroos's own words, 25 minutes of a level he called "absolutely exceptional."

Every dangerous Barcelona attack seemed to come from him. He was creating those advantages himself, beating opponents and generating chances through his own individual brilliance. You could almost picture him telling his teammates: 'Just give me the ball. We're going to come back in this game'Toni Kroos

But not even having a player of that caliber on the team changes the overall picture for Kroos. However much individual spark Lamine Yamal provides, the German insists the collective style remains the big obstacle: with the way Barcelona play right now, he admitted, it's hard for him to see them as European champions.

Not the first time he's said it

This isn't a new take from Kroos. He had already raised these doubts last year, and to back them up he pointed to a very specific example: Barcelona's elimination at the hands of Inter Milan in the semifinals of 2025.

According to Kroos, that tie sums up exactly the kind of problem he sees in this team. Sooner or later, he said, Barça run into a rival who stands up to them in the same way, whether it's in the round of 16, the quarterfinals, the semifinals, or even a final.

The underlying argument has to do with physical wear and tear. Kroos maintains that from around the 75th minute onward, fatigue starts to show in Flick's lineup, and that's when it costs them most not having a second style of play, one that's tighter and more pragmatic, to protect a result once the legs have nothing left to give.