Eden Hazard to make the tournament his own after Messi and Ronaldo exit

Posted Monday, July 02, 2018 by Express.co.uk

Eden Hazard to make the tournament his own after Messi and Ronaldo exit
Eden Hazard is ready to make the World Cup his tournament

EDEN HAZARD is ready to make the World Cup his tournament now that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have gone home.

Hazard will lead Belgium against Japan in Rostov in the last 16 tonight with a clear mission to unlock both his own potential as a global superstar and his country’s potential to be world champions.

Belgum’s ‘golden generation’ hit a stumbling block in Euro 2016 when they lost to Wales, and they also disappointed in Brazil in 2014.

But the current side were top scorers in the group stage in Russia and face Japan as strong favourites to reach the quarter-finals, where Brazil are likely to be waiting.

So when Hazard was asked if he could step up to the plate with Messi and Ronaldo absent, the answer was positive.

“Yes, I hope so. They are not in the World Cup so now it is time to shine. I want to go through the quarter-final, semi-final and maybe the final,” he said.

“I am not the only one of course. Messi and Ronaldo, they are out now, but there are still a lot of good players at the World Cup. We will see at the end what happens.”

Hazard is clear, however, that he feels in a good place in terms of his own development. “I am a lot stronger than two years ago, or four years ago in Brazil, definitely,” he said. “I have a lot more experience.

“Four years ago it was our first major competition, all of us together. France was our second one, and knockout matches have a lot to do with experience.

“When you have a younger team, it is more complicated even if you have good players. Now most of us are between 25 and 30, so we have the same level of maturity and this will make the difference.”

Hazard has scored two goals in Russia but his partnership with Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku, who has four goals, and Dries Mertens has been a real feature of Belgium’s play.

“Romelu, Dries and myself have reached our best level since we’ve started playing football,” Hazard said. “Romelu is at a great club and has been scoring a lot of goals. Dries has been one of the best scorers in Italy for the last three years.

“We are very lucky to have Lukaku with us because he doesn’t need much to score. Maybe a few years ago he needed more but not now. This is why he is one of the top, top players. If he has three scoring opportunities, he scores two goals most of the time. He is much better than a few years ago.

“His defensive work is very good as well, he didn’t do as much in defence before. But he has a lot of qualities in attack and when he plays he scores.”

Hazard’s confidence in his team-mates shines through and he isn’t afraid to accept the pressure for Belgium’s golden generation to come good.

“It is time to shine, definitely,” he said. “We have top players. We play as a group, all together – it is not just one or two players, we have 23 players. Especially against England we saw that. So it is in our hands.”

What Hazard is determined to do is to avoid a ‘Wales moment’ when Belgium’s dreams were ended at Euro 2016, perhaps by under-estimating their opposition.

“We are much better off than two years ago because then we had injuries just before the match as well,” he said.

“Now is another tournament against another team. Japan is totally different from Wales. We will take this match as seriously as possible.”