The Belgian looked a bit off the pace in his first match back since testing positive for coronavirus. He bought some useful fouls for his team before being replaced in the 65th minute.
Poor performance. He is still a long way from the Hazard we saw the season prior to his arrival at Madrid. Although against Villarreal, he had an excuse because he has just come back from training in confinement after his coronavirus diagnosis.
Welcome back, Eden: Hazard & a goal to remind us how f*cking good he is back with wonder goal.
Think back to watching Eden Hazard at Chelsea and what do you see?
That outrageously smooth way he would glide past defenders, perhaps? Or what about the way he could protect a ball with his monumental arse? Maybe you think back to one of the many, many, many times he made Phil Jones look like he was playing with his hands and feet the wrong way around.
We’ve never tried to hide our love of Hazard – even going as far as describing his season playing alongside Joe Cole and Dimitri Payet as our wet dream – so his debut season at Real Madrid made us feel incredibly sad.
The Belgium international himself described 2019-20 as “the worst season of my career” after fitness issues restricted him to just 14 La Liga starts, in which he scored a solitary goal.
After another untimely knock ruled Hazard out of the start of 2020-21, the 29-year-old made his first start of the campaign in Real Madrid’s La Liga clash with Huesca on Saturday.
A ridiculous 392 days had passed since his only previous goal for Los Blancos, a strike which arrived at a time when a global pandemic was still a dystopian nightmare rather than a grim reality.
But with 39 minutes on the clock and the scores still locked, Hazard suddenly resembled his former self, turning on the ball once again with the protection of his sturdy backside before rifling a 25-yard thunderbastard into the corner of the net.
Plenty of people were enjoying the prospect of being able to write off Eden Hazard as yet another mega-money flop. The knives might be out, but as Hazard proved with his goal against Huesca, you’re going to need a lot more than a knife against a master gunslinger.
