Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos says he expects Atletico Madrid's players to put the referee "under pressure" in Wednesday's Champions League quarterfinal second leg at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
Madrid players and pundits often talk about Atletico's aggressive approach ahead of derbi games, although Los Blancos are not shy about getting stuck in themselves, with both Sergio Ramos and Dani Carvajal fortunate to escape punishment for rough challenges on Colchoneros centre-forward Mario Mandzukic during last week's goalless first leg at the Estadio Vicente Calderon.
However, Kroos suggested at the pregame news conference that he hoped the referee would be able to deal with the intense and physical approach favoured by Diego Simeone's Atletico team.
"We all know Atletico," Kroos said. "They play the way they do and they have had success against us. We will have to put up resistance to their game and not let them play. They put the referee under pressure, but we have to play in our own way."
The Germany midfielder is himself a yellow card away from being suspended for a potential semifinal, and joked that he would be asking referee Felix Brych, a fellow German, to go easy during Wednesday's game.
"I am going to talk to him before the game so that he doesn't give me a yellow card [laughs]," Kroos said. "He is a German referee and is very good, and will do a great job. He already know what to expect."
Kroos said that Madrid, who are missing Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema through injury and Marcelo through suspension, would focus on playing their own game, and hope to repeat last week's first half against Atletico.
"We have to play the way we normally do," he said. "We did really well in the first half and now we have to do that for 90 minutes. If we do then we will go through. In the return leg of the Super Cup we also played really well and showed that we can play against them.
"We have to avoid stupid errors and we hope to go through at our home stadium. We had a good result in the first leg and now we want to make it through to the next round. It is a good time to get back to winning ways. We just want to get through to the semifinals whatever happens. The most important thing will be to dominate midfield and that is our aim."
Should Madrid progress they could meet a former teammate in the last four, with ex-Blancos midfielder Xabi Alonso having played a key part in his current team Bayern Munich's hugely impressive 6-1 quarterfinal second leg win over Porto on Tuesday night.
Speaking after that game Alonso, who surprisingly left the Bernabeu outfit late in last summer's transfer window to join Bayern, told Canal Plus that he hoped his old team progressed.
"In the derbi I am with Madrid," Alonso said. "I hope they go through, I wish them the best for the game. They are a team which I am still very attached to, all I experience there is still very recent. I have a lot of friends there."