Real Madrid: Evaluating Eden Hazard’s full 90 minutes against Finland
Real Madrid’s marquee signing from the summer of 2019, Eden Hazard is at the moment with his national team, Belgium, competing in the ongoing European Championships. Belgium has a strong side prepared for the tournament and is likely the favorites to win their Round of 16 tie against an equally strong side, the defending champions Portugal.
As such, Eden Hazard has featured in all three games in the finals of the tournament. He played against Denmark and Russia as a substitute, clocking half-hour against Denmark, their second game, and only 18 minutes against Russia in the first.
As I have argued earlier, getting the minutes on the field is an important key for Eden Hazard at the Euros after struggling with injuries this past season. The positive to note here is that Hazard finally had a full game since November 23, 2019. He seems to be stepping up for his national outfit trying to get the game time that he so necessarily needs.
Apart from just completing a full match, he arguably performed well. WhoScored even rated him over 7 for his performance. Though he didn’t make any direct goal contribution in their 2-0 win, he was at the heart of their moves.
Eden Hazard’s performance improved significantly in the second half
The first-half performance by Hazard was a little off the mark. His body language seemed conservative and he took a visible hiatus on his forward passing, opting for a lateral backward pass more often when he found the ball for an exchange. All Madridistas and the new structure of management at Real Madrid would surely have had their questions over Hazard’s pace and attacking instincts, the second half housed a lot of positives to note for them.
The second half found both Hazard and the game itself with a lot more energy, as would be expected from the opposition putting in the fight for sealing a spot in the knockout stages of the tournament. The best part is Hazard coped up well in the increased tempo of the game.
He came very close to scoring just before the halftime whistle when he was beautifully played in by a combination play between Kevin de Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku. However, he couldn’t capitalize and rather went down inside the box. He had another bright moment at 62 minutes which nearly broke the deadlock. Alex Witsel played a ball in from the left that Hazard hoped on to with a venomous left-footed strike right at the Goalkeeper, Lukas Hradecky.
Passing-wise he had a great game completing 54 out of 62 passes, a near-about 87% accuracy, per Sofascore. He also attempted longballs completing two out of three and registered one key pass. In his 80 touches, he completed two dribbles too. But, there is a lot more to his performance than statistics can ever tell.
Firstly, Hazard stayed alive inside the box. He followed the ball well and was present for anything that may fall his way. And secondly, he found clever pockets of space in a crowded box. His movement inside the box reminded me of his vintage version. He was also timing his runs with perfection and exhibited decent control over his shots.
Defensively, Hazard was winning duels, both in the air and on the ground, he also registered an interception. He could also win his side one freekick. Yes, Hazard had a positive performance but he still has a long way to go. This performance may have just been enough to help Carlo Ancelotti devise his plans for the forward who said he didn’t want to leave Real Madrid as a failure.
There were a few areas of improvement, as is obvious. His game was affected a lot by his bench time and injuries at the Spanish capital. He lost the ball a total of 16 times throughout the match. And, from a player of Hazard’s quality, fans expect more and most importantly they expect improvement.
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Though still a long way apart from the Chelsea goal machine we all knew, playing a full game in over a year and a half is a step in the correct direction. We only hope there’s more of the similar good work in store once he puts on the Real Madrid kit under Carlo Ancelotti.