Kroos' Brazil-Germany New Year tweet causes social-media stir

Germany midfielder Toni Kroos has raised eyebrows with his New Year's message to his social-media followers by including a reference to his country's memorable World Cup semi-final win over Brazil in 2014.

Kroos alludes to Germany's 7-1 humbling of Brazil

In a post on Twitter, the Real Madrid man wished fans a "Happy 2017", but used the Brazilian and German flags to represent the '1' and '7' - a clear allusion to the scoreline in Die Mannschaft's heavy defeat of the tournament hosts.

Real colleague Marcelo urges "RESPECT"

Kroos' tweet is unlikely to have gone down well with Real club-mate Marcelo, who was in the Brazil side humiliated by Joachim Löw's team in Belo Horizonte.

Indeed, the left-back also used his Twitter account to offer users all the best for 2017, and - perhaps pointedly - called for "RESPECT" in the 12 months ahead.

Kroos plays down "little joke"

Ex-Bayern Munich star Kroos later added another post in which he laughed off his earlier tweet as "a little joke" and reiterated his New Year's wishes.