Chelsea will renew acquaintances with Eden Hazard this evening
when they face Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals.
It is fair to say the 30-year-old’s high-profile move from the Blues
to the Bernabeu in 2019 has not gone entirely to plan.
Hazard has just 26 La Liga appearances and three goals to his
name since moving a season-and-a-half ago, with a succession of
injuries nullifying his chances of making an impact on Los Blancos.
In fact, after missing just 18 games through injury in seven
seasons at Stamford Bridge, Hazard has already been forced to sit
out 45 La Liga games alone for Real Madrid.
Yet, after seemingly coming through a 13-minute cameo off the
bench in Saturday’s goalless draw with Real Betis unscathed, the
mercurial attacker is set to be fit to feature against the Blues this
evening.
After featuring just 15 times in all competitions this season, it
remains to be seen whether he will start in this evening’s game,
but the Blues know all about the sort of threat he can pose teams –
and they may well want to listen to Hazard’s own advice when
plotting how to deal with him.
Back in 2018, Hazard and Marcos Alonso had formed a devastating
partnership on the left-hand side of the pitch for the Blues, with
duo netting 24 times between them in 2017/18.
Alonso’s attacking instinct saw him score eight times in that
season, which prompted Hazard to send him some advice at the
start of the following campaign.
“Sometimes he is in front of me,” he said.
“I said to him once, ‘Marcos, I think your first target is to defend,
because you play left-back’, but this guy don’t want to listen, he
just wants to score goals.”
Whilst Alonso has been displaced by Ben Chilwell as first-choice
option on the left side of defence at Chelsea, Hazard’s point still
stands, particularly with Thomas Tuchel deploying a wing-back
system.
Should the Blues be too gung-ho in attack, the likes of Hazard
could well look to exploit the space left on the wing.
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