Real Madrid star criticised for World Cup performance

A number of Real Madrid players are representing their national teams at the World Cup. But the most pressure out of all of them might be on Eden Hazard’s shoulders, who is captaining the Belgium national team. They opened their campaign with a 1-0 win over Canada, thanks to a goal from Michy Batshuayi.

At the same time though, Belgium’s performance on the night left a lot to be desired. They were outplayed by the Canadian national team, who could have easily walked out with a win on the night if they had managed to take their chances in front of goal.

Hazard himself was not impressive either, and it remains to be seen if he can rediscover some of his old form as the tournament progresses. Roberto Martinez has shown a lot of faith in him by not only starting him but also letting him keep the armband.

Former Chelsea star and World Cup winner, Frank Leboeuf, was not particularly impressed with the performance of Hazard on the night. As reported by HITC, he said about the Belgian while speaking on ESPN:

"“I didn’t look at the (Belgium) line-up.“I didn’t see him for 20 minutes. I didn’t know he was playing.“Then I saw a little bit of him and it makes me laugh when some people say ‘it was a deliberate pass from Hazard’.“But I don’t expect anything from Hazard, I have to say. Hopefully, he’s going to get better. We didn’t really see him and he didn’t really have much influence.”"

Real Madrid star criticised for his performance in World Cup opener

We all know how things have turned out for Hazard since his move to Real Madrid from Chelsea. He has gone from one of the best players in the world to the last choice winger in Carlo Ancelotti’s side.

It is safe to say that he was not at his best against Canada but you would not expect him to be, considering how little football he has played coming into the World Cup.

Let’s see how he performs after a game or two more. Hazard himself has sounded confident in his abilities leading up to the tournament but there are serious questions amongst fans about whether he is even close to the player that he was at Chelsea.