Real Madrid star left winger Eden Hazard suffered yet another serious injury on La Liga’s Matchday 25 against Levante. Here are five players who will have to step up in the Champions League to fill the void left by the team’s star attacker.
Although Real Madrid did not win either of their games when Eden Hazard returned to the starting lineup, he was one of the team’s best players in both matches. Real dominated in the attack against both Celta Vigo and Levante but were undone by poor finishing and slight defensive errors that were punished in the worst possible way.
As we saw in November, Real Madrid are a much more dangerous team with Hazard in the lineup. His dribbling ability, work rate, clever passing, knack for drawing fouls, and overall threat make him the team’s best all-around attacker and a great complement for Karim Benzema.
But as we also saw in January, Real are capable of winning without him. It will be more difficult to accomplish this in the Champions League, but if these five key players take their performances to another level, Los Blancos can do exactly that.
CAM Isco
Isco was Real Madrid’s star man against Osasuna a couple of weeks ago, scoring the equalizing goal and providing plenty of great passing throughout the afternoon. On Saturday in the 1-0 loss to Levante, Isco was also arguably the team’s best player.
The Spanish international took center stage when on the ball, showing off the skill that made him one of the country’s top attacking midfielders. Per WhoScored.com, Isco completed 90.7% of his passes and had four key passes.
He will need to continue to play at a high level in order to provide the quality on the ball and incisive play that Real Madrid will miss against Manchester City without Eden Hazard.