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Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos joked that he skipped Cristiano Ronaldo's birthday party following the club's heavy defeat to Atletico Madrid on Feb 7. because he anticipated that media and fan criticism would ensue. Ronaldo, who was voted the worst Real player in Saturday's 4-0 thrashing in a poll conducted by Spanish sports newspaper Marca, celebrated his 30th birthday on Feb. 5 but was blasted by Spanish media after a video on social media showed him partying the night after the match. "I was invited but I didn't go because I could see that coming," Kroos told German TV station ZDF with a laugh. "That's a joke. Now in all seriousness, this is not something I should be speaking about, everyone's life should be private and they should make their own decisions. "Of course, it was a tough moment after the 0-4 loss to Atletico, but it was a birthday party to which a lot of people had been invited, the coach was aware. You can't just cancel something like that because we had a bad game." Kroos, who said Real Madrid played an "exceptional match" against Schalke in Wednesday's 2-0 Champions League victory, also downplayed talk in Spain over a team crisis following the loss to Atletico. "The crisis was just loss of one match," Kroos added. "Lots of clubs would like to have a crisis like that. We didn't play like we should have and the criticism was justified." Ronaldo, who won the FIFA Ballon d'Or for a second year in succession last month, has enjoyed an impressive campaign so far. The Portugal international has scored 28 goals and set up nine more in 19 league appearances to help Real lead the Primera Division standings.
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