Against Elche, on January 20, in the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey. Seven and a half months after his last goal for Real Madrid, Eden Hazard he saw goal again with the elastic merengue, his seventh goal in four seasons. It was the finishing touch to a brilliant and unexpected performance by the Belgian at Celtic Park. The clock showed minute 26 of the first half, and Madrid started a counterattack from their own area, after the Scottish team took a corner, in which Benzema injured his right knee. The Frenchman teamed up with Kroos and he alone, in a bad gesture, immediately noticed how that knee had just failed him.
For a couple of minutes, Karim was trying to test his stability, but the gestures of pain were unmistakable. Benzema could not bend his knee or run normally, and immediately asked Ancelotti for the change. The Italian, very concerned, asked Karim how he was, once the Frenchman passed him on his way to the locker room. The dialogue was quick, but concise. Benzema pointed to the outside of his right knee. finished the game, Carletto The alarm level dropped, but we will have to wait for a more in-depth diagnosis: «He has noticed something in the upper part of his knee and Karim is a player who always withdraws as a precaution whenever he notices something. On first scan he doesn’t seem particularly serious, but it’s not yet known if he’s muscular or knee-deep. It is not clear. We have to wait for today’s tests,” Ancelotti explained.
Karim’s misfortune was the worst news of a match with two faces and with another great protagonist, but this one on the positive side. Hazard, the surprising replacement for Benzema, had one of his best games at Madrid. Somewhat erratic and out of place, like the rest of his teammates, in the fifteen minutes he played in the first half, he scored a luxurious second half, generating the play of the second goal and scoring the final 0-3.
«I expected this match from him because in training he is motivated. He has cost him in the first part, but in the second he has been decisive. He has given assistance to Modric and he scored the third”, commented Ancelotti, who praised his intelligence when interpreting his role at the point of attack: “He cannot play as a center forward. He has the characteristics to move, so as not to have a fixed position in the middle of the rival center-backs. The fact that he moves makes them not have reference to him. He has done well ». «He is a great player. It was never a question of quality, rather due to injuries and wanting to recover his best level, but he entered the match phenomenally », analyzed Kroos, the MVP of the match.
Hazard not only contributed on an offensive level, he was also very generous in high pressure. He even with 0-3 and in the final minutes he was the first to go to the rival area to cover the ball out of the Celtic, showing that nothing can be blamed in attitude. This is how his teammates recognized him, who made a total pineapple in the celebration of his goal, and the technical staff, very affectionate with the Belgian when he retired to the shower after the final whistle of a game of lights and shadows: “I don’t I can get mad at this team. We have suffered because here you suffer with this team. But we have not lost our minds. In the second half we played very well and I think, honestly, that it was a recital”, declared Carletto.
