Toni Kroos takes Arsenal Champions League experience swipe amid 'very weird' Real Madrid issue

Toni Kroos believes Arsenal's clash against Real Madrid will be decided in the opening quarter of an hour. Los Blancos will host Mikel Arteta's side at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday evening for .

Arsenal cruised past Real Madrid in the first leg at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night, securing a comfortable three-goal cushion. Declan Rice scored two excellent free-kicks before from the top of the box.

Speaking on the podcast ahead of the highly anticipated tie, to stand a chance of defending their European title. The 35-year-old, who retired last year, said: "The emotional factor will be a huge decider against Arsenal.

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". That’s how it should go ideally. You need to make Arsenal, who have no Champions League quarter-final experience, especially not in Madrid, think: ‘woah, it’s not over yet’."

Kroos, who won the Champions League five times with Real Madrid, added: "I can say from experience, usually when Real Madrid are chasing, , even if it’s five, six or seven minutes left.

"And as you know a goal in this stage is always important to survive. That one goal is so crucial for the 2nd leg. But you felt that from the boys’ body language – I can assume since I’ve played with them for years – they’re saying, ‘Please don’t score the fourth goal’.

"And that’s very weird, because it was never this way. It didn’t matter against who, there were some matches which we lost, but that’s not how it was."

Arsenal will be looking to exploit the Spanish giants' shift in mentality and book a place in the semi-finals. Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Ancelotti insisted that Real Madrid will 'try until the last minute' to defeat the Gunners.

"We will try," said the former Chelsea and Everton boss. "Real Madrid is the only team that has done it many times, but we'll try to do it once again. We're aware of how much our fans and the stadium can help us.

"We're going to try until the last minute and until the last ball, starting tomorrow," added Ancelotti. "It's a question of the players' attributes. The same thing happened in previous years, we were able to win by running less total distance.

"The statistics talk a lot about total distance but not about sprint distance, which isn't like this. Despite this, we have won two Champions League trophies. Against Arsenal, we did less in every aspect: in sprint distance, in total distance, in acceleration...

"They worked harder than us," said Ancelotti. "There's been a drop generally, not just our efficiency going forward. We've conceded too many goals in these last few games and that's where we need to tighten up.

"Defensive solidity is so important, especially when the strikers are not as effective as they have always been..."