Kroos praises imperious Germany

Toni Kroos believes Germany did themselves credit by qualifying for Euro 2012 with a 100 percent record.

Germany, beaten finalists at the 2008 European Championships, won all 10 of their matches in Group A of qualifying, booking their place at next year’s finals in Poland and the Ukraine.

Their passage to the tournament was assured with two matches to spare, but they still managed to defeat Turkey away and Belgium at home, with 3-1 the result in both fixtures.

And Bayern Munich forward Kroos considers finishing up with the perfect record to be an indication of the national team’s professionalism and determination.

“It could have been tricky to stay focused having already qualified. But we managed it, despite struggling in the first 20 minutes,” Kroos said, referring to the team’s home victory at the Espirit Arena.

“Due to the poor state of the pitch, it was hard to find our passing game. I don’t know whether you saw it, but the pitch was very bad.”

“We gained the control after going 1-0 ahead and were well on top in the second half.”

Germany reached the last four of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, before losing to eventual winners Spain.

It was also Spain who defeated Joachim Loew’s team in the 2008 European Championship final.

But Kroos is hopeful Germany are now equipped to meet the defending champions on an equal footing next year.

“When you win 10 games out of 10 then I think you can only ever have a few negative points,” he said.

“We’ve been very focused and played well after what was a long and hard World Cup.”

“But we’ve had to keep working hard. We’ve had to concentrate in every game we’ve played and now we see the result.”

“I think the entire squad and I improved a lot and we want to continue that.”

“We did what we needed to do, and the second part of our objective will hopefully come in the summer.”