Kroos: If Italy advances directly, there is no need to complain about the small number of places. The World Cup group stage will be boring.

November 22 German star Kroos recently talked about topics related to World Cup expansion. He bluntly said that the expanded World Cup group stage will be boring, but Italy should advance directly.

The 2026 World Cup will be the first World Cup after the expansion, but among the 16 new places, only 3 places have been added to the European region. This has also triggered heated discussions among all parties. Recently, the European World Cup preliminaries play-off draw ended, and many powerful teams faced the difficult situation of "choosing one of four" to advance, which has further aroused people's discussion. Former German international Kramer bluntly said when he was a guest on a TV show: "There are only 16 places in the European area. What's going on?"

When talking about the small number of places in the European area after the expansion of the World Cup, Toni Kroos also expressed his views on this controversy: "I don't think this theory applies to every country. As far as Italy is concerned, you should have the ability to advance directly. Then there is no need to complain (too few places). "

"But the proportion of European teams is indeed too small - I always think that the strength density of European teams is the highest in the world, far exceeding other continents. It is reasonable to occupy 16 seats in the 32-team format, but after expanding to 48 teams, the European area only has 16 seats, and this ratio is unbalanced. "The Real Madrid legend added.

Kros believes that there are "too many participating teams." Under the 48-team competition format, according to the current quota allocation, you will face - I am 100% sure - a lot of boring group matches with very different scores."

The 2014 world champion is worried that there will be "about 20 teams" participating with a "participation-focused" mentality: "These The team is simply unable to compete for any qualifications, and there will be a large number of games with huge differences in points in the group stage. He emphasized that the World Cup should present exciting matchups and high-intensity competition. No matter where the team comes from, there are also teams with insufficient strength in Europe. Although the opportunity to participate is a good thing, it will not help improve the quality and suspense of the group stage.