The World Cup in Qatar turned out to be a fiasco for the Red Devils. Our national team was not really convincing and ultimately did not survive the group stage. Eden Hazard (32) once again looked at RTBF for the last time in his ‘last dance’ for Belgium. “We had no luck against Croatia,” said the Real Madrid striker.
At the World Cup in Qatar, the Red Devils face a decisive match against Croatia after 3 out of 6 against Canada and Morocco. Ultimately, the Belgians stumble to a 0-0 draw and are forced to leave the tournament.
In retrospect, many fans were surprised that Eden Hazard was not given a starting place by Roberto Martinez. A feeling he lived with the captain himself. “I thought I would play,” Hazard admits to our French-speaking teammates.
“The coach told me two hours before the game. I wanted to be on the court, but I can’t blame him. We played a great game, but we missed the goal.”
After the match against Morocco, I had adductor muscle problems.
However, there were not only tactical reasons behind Martinez’s selection. “I was satisfied with my performance against Morocco, but I wasn’t able to train the next day because of adductor problems.”
“When the national coach told me I wouldn’t start, he called it a medical choice, not an athletic one,” the striker explains the situation.
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Martinez has already planned to let me rest against Croatia.
In the end the captain only played 4 minutes against Croatia and in the meantime he also said goodbye to the national team. Hazard is clear: “Whether I’m angry at Martinez? Not at all.”
“The coach himself didn’t anticipate that we would have to compete in the Group C match to continue. In his head he had already planned to let me rest that match, so that I could be fit for the eighth finals.”
I’m not mad at Martinez at all.
“I have a lot of respect for MartÃnez. We’ve been through so many great things together. It would be very easy to say he should have let me start in the last game.”
“Coaches make their decisions and you have to accept it. If we had won the match and my substitute had scored the decisive goal, everyone would have praised him,” the former Red Devil was sincere.
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Get down to the details at the end.
In the end, the Red Devils played their best World Cup match against Croatia, but it was not possible to score. What went wrong, according to our compatriot?
“There are several reasons why it didn’t work. Romelu (Lukaku) is someone who scores goals easily, but he got injured. And Kevin (De Bruyne) was in a little less shape. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
The man with 126 caps concluded: “Kevin could have scored a goal and provided assists. Then everyone would say he played a great game. In the end it was all about the details.”
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