Germany’s midfield linchpin will soon hang up his boots, but is confident of playing beyond the quarter-final

Toni Kroos sat down, smiled and made no apologies for arriving empty-handed. Should he not have brought farewell cakes with him? The curtain could fall any day now, after all. It was not hard to envisage that these, just two days out from Germany’s quarter-final tie against an exceptional Spain, could be his final public pronouncements as a professional footballer. “I’m not feeling nostalgic in the least,” Kroos deadpanned. “I don’t expect this will be my final match and I assume we’ll all be seeing each other again.”

The kuchen will have to wait and so, the host nation hopes, will the goodbyes. It was a shock when Kroos announced in May that, at 34 and seemingly with a few more years in the tank, he would retire this summer. He wanted to depart on a high and it gave his decision to have one last shot at international football, made three months previously, a fresh dimension. A European Championship medal has eluded him but there is a growing belief Kroos could ride into the sunset wearing one.

• Defender’s gesture has apparent far-right connotations
• Uefa inquiry could lead to him missing quarter-final tie

Merih Demiral, Turkey’s goalscorer from their last-16 win over Austria, could face a ban from their quarter-final against the Netherlands on Saturday after Uefa opened an investigation into a gesture with apparent far-right connotations.

Demiral, a centre-back, was the unlikely match winner for Turkey in Leipzig but may be in line for disciplinary action after celebrating his second goal with a “wolf” salute. It is associated with the right-wing extremist nationalist group Grey Wolves and is banned in Austria, where it is punishable by fines of up to €4,000 (£3,400), since 2019.