Chelsea star Mason Mount appeared to have been mocked by Real Madrid counterpart Toni Kroos during this week’s Champions League quarter final between the two.
The Spanish giants progressed to the last four of the competition in dramatic circumstances after goals from Rodrygo Goes and Karim Benzema saw them edge out the Blues over the two legs in extra-time. Thomas Tuchel’s had fought back from a 3-1 first leg loss at Stamford Bridge to stunningly take the lead in Madrid thanks to goals from Mount, Antonio Rudiger and Timo Werner – before Los Blancos edged past them in a stunning tie.
Fresh video footage has emerged from Tuesday’s second leg in the Spanish capital which appears to show Kroos mocking Mount – who played a starring role in the second leg despite it not ultimately being enough for Chelsea. At the end of the match, the German appeared to mock Mount’s salute of looking into the distance when he scores.
It appeared to be somewhat of a personal feud between the two players which goes back to the Champions League semi final meeting between the sides last season. Back then, Mount took exception to comments from Kroos – which appeared at the time to be fairly innocuous.
Kroos had said ahead of last year’s second leg at Stamford Bridge, when the tie was finely poised at 1-1: “'In my 15 years playing football, I never lost sleep. They showed in Madrid that they play as a team. They have a German coach so that doesn't surprise me. They defend well and have pace up front, those are their strengths.”
After the Blues progressed through to the final after comfortably winning the second leg in North London, Mount appeared to responded directly to those comments: “I saw one of their players say before that he doesn't lose sleep over individuals. But as a team, they need to lose sleep over us as a team. We give so much, we defend for our lives.”
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Kroos then came out in a lighter tone to respond to Mount's comments, tweeting the next day: “Still sleeping ok. But well done yesterday. congrats. Good luck in your first CL final.” That had appeared to be the end of the matter, but Kroos has now appeared to reignite that simmering tension between the two players with his latest gesture.
The Blues went on to win last year’s Champions League final against Manchester City in Porto, with Pep Guardiola’s side now standing in the way of Real Madrid reaching this season’s showpiece event.
