HAZARD HUMBLED BY CHELSEA’S NEW HEROES MATT BARLOW:
It’s a night for new heroes as legend Eden falls flat
HoME comforts, in the end, did not inspire Eden Hazard and this would prove to be an exciting glimpse of Chelsea’s future rather than a wistful reflection on a golden past.
It was a night for the next generation. Timo Werner and Kai Havertz combined for the first goal, Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic for the second, to kill the tie and send Chelsea to Istanbul.
Edouard Mendy resisted in goal behind Thomas Tuchel’s miserly defensive unit while N’Golo Kante ran the show in midfield, resurgent, back to his supreme best.
How they all deserved to be cheered from the pitch to the sound of one Step Beyond.
Victory ought to have been more comfortable. Tuchel’s team were wasteful but they fizzed with energy. They carved open real Madrid and they bristled with possibilities.
real required all their experience and more than a little luck to hang in the tie. They refused to fold but, ultimately, they slithered out with the look of fading champions.
Perhaps the fact that Zinedine Zidane was prepared to gamble on the return of Hazard after injury hinted at his fears. Perhaps he hoped the Belgian might summon a match-winning performance.
unfortunately for Zidane, he could not, he was a shadow of the player he can be when in the groove. More than an hour had passed before he conjured an attempt at goal.
Mendy saved, as he did twice in the first half from Karim Benzema, who was the greatest threat to Chelsea’s place in the final, just as he was in the first leg.
‘We do not need a miracle or crazy stuff,’ said Tuchel ahead of the kick-off. All he needed was the usual clean sheet. His team specialise in them and delivered another, complete with pace and menace on the counter-attack.
Hazard’s laughing and joking on the pitch with former team-mates after the defeat is not likely to go down well in Madrid, but that is his way. He wished his pals well.
Perhaps he was even pleased to see them. It has not gone well for him since his move.
And only the closed doors of the pandemic denied him what would have been a rapturous homecoming. They cherish their returning heroes at Stamford Bridge.
Be it Didier Drogba in the colours of Galatasaray or Petr Cech with the Arsenal cannon on his chest. They incurred the wrath of Jose Mourinho by singing frank Lampard’s name as he equalised against them for Manchester City and once stood to applaud when Jimmy floyd Hasselbaink scored for Charlton.
They would have embraced Hazard, too. Certainly more warmly than Thibaut Courtois. Although probably with the intent of Andreas Christensen, who gave him a cuddle during an early break in play and then cut him down from behind at the first chance.
Christensen and Cesar Azpilicueta, perhaps the two Chelsea players who know him best, on the right side of the back five, were entrusted to keep him quiet and they did their job.
Jorginho picked up an early yellow card for tripping Hazard as he stretched out of defence on a counter — a spin and little explosion of pace, like a rubber ball.
‘The most talented footballer I’ve ever played with,’ said BT Sport pundit Joe Cole, a teammate of Hazard’s at Lille. ‘ It’s unfathomable how it hasn’t worked out for him at real Madrid.’
Not one, either, to be deterred by physical attention but this was not the same player who bid farewell at the top of his game, two years ago, straight after a scintillating exhibition of his rare talent in the Europa League final.
His time in Spain has been marred by injuries and lockdown disruptions and there must have been a tingle down his spine as he stepped into a familiar arena.
Albeit it from an unfamiliar angle — a long walk from the health club doubling up as the away team dressing room, behind the Matthew Harding Stand.
Zidane was banking on instinct kicking in for the man who inherited Cristiano ronaldo’s No 7 and was meant to stop the fans pining for a lost galactico.
Hazard settled into his favoured berth, wide on the left. The surface was slick from a pre-match downpour and his stage seemed to be set. There were flicks and burst, a pirouette to escape Jorginho, but it was clear he was not sharp.
He is 30 and has not played regularly. There was no natural rhythm. In fact, his real teammates sometimes seemed to think twice about giving him the ball.
Instead, the thrills came from those in blue. Chelsea’s first was nodded into an open goal by teammates after Kante won possession and beat Courtois with a chip against the bar.
Just as real search for a successor to ronaldo, so Chelsea search for a successor to Hazard. Havertz is a different type of footballer. Taller and more elegant, he plays the game at a different pace.
Werner and Pulisic are closer to the robust style of the Belgian and Mount is a homegrown star. They are all improving and developing within Tuchel’s team.
This night belonged to them and not to the returning legend. It was a night to hail new heroes.