Eden Hazard has attracted a series of criticism to himself after he was caught on camera having fun with Chelsea players minutes after the Premier League club knocked out Real Madrid from the UEFA Champions League campaign.
The coach of Real Madrid, Zinedine Zidane decided to play 3-5-2 to accommodate Eden Hazard and the club’s talisman Karim Benzema upfront in the second leg of the semi-final round of the competition.
Unfortunately for the French tactician, the decision worked against him and his team as the two forwards failed to score in the match.
Chelsea got the better of Zinedine Zidane’s tactics and the Spanish side ended their journey in the Champions League 3-1 on aggregate after 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, May 5.
While other players of the Spanish team were agonizing over the defeat, Eden Hazard who played 89 minutes of the game without making much impact decided to spend some time with Chelsea players in the full glare of the media.
We will always love @hazardeden10 💙pic.twitter.com/qeXgGg0D4o
— Pys (@CFCPys) May 5, 2021
When visuals of his action surfaced on social media, Real Madrid fans who expected that he would be sorry for not helping the team to win the game, slammed him for being so ungrateful to coach Zidane who showed confidence in him by starting him against his former club.
Recall that the 30-year-old Belgium striker left Chelsea in July 2019 to join Real Madrid in pursuit of a UEFA Champions League title. However, since he made the €115million move, he has been battling to regain the kind of form he exhibited while at Chelsea and Madrid have failed to win the title since his arrival.
Before he departed Chelsea in 2019, Eden Hazard was the club’s fans’ favorite player and the club’s talisman. The winger scored 110 goals and provided 92 assists in 352 appearances for Chelsea between 2012 and 2019.
But at Real Madrid, he has struggled to be a regular due to injuries, fitness issues, and lack of form. Since he has not given Real Madrid his best after two seasons, critics, some pundits and most fans of the club believe that Hazard owes the club and the fans an apology and better performance in future games for celebrating with Chelsea last night.
In reaction to Hazard’s action, Terry Gibson, a Spanish football expert who is a former player of Manchester United and Tottenham stressed that Hazard’s decision to joke and laugh with Chelsea’s players after the game was wrong.
He said he does not fault the demand of some of the club’s fans that Hazard should be sold for his insensitivity against the club, he however wondered if any club can afford him at this point.
“The first thing is to who? Who’s got the money and who would buy him after two years ravaged by injury? So I think that’s the big problem but I can understand the frustrations of the Real Madrid fans,” Gibson told Sky Sports News.
“I think he was an easy target last night anyway because his form at Real Madrid has been disastrous and the way that he’s been injured for the last couple of seasons.
“When he’s played he hasn’t been effective so he was always going to be an easy target, he hasn’t adhered himself to the Real Madrid fans.
“I can understand that as well, losing a Champions League semi-final, not that I would know, but being involved in semi-finals myself, if you were to lose you should be devastated.
“For him to have been as happy as he was after the final whistle with former teammates! It’s fine but if you want to congratulate them perhaps it’s best done behind the scenes but to do it in full view of the media, the cameras, which everybody in the world can then see.”
Great finish @Benzema ⚽️Nice to see some old friends! 😉 pic.twitter.com/iiFNRtxOXv
— Eden Hazard (@hazardeden10) April 27, 2021
As at the time of publishing this report, Eden Hazard was yet to make any statement about his decision to celebrate with Chelsea’s players after Real Madrid were knocked out of the Champions League. The Spanish club was yet to also react to Hazard’s action.
