The Belgian will play from the opening whistle against Mallorca.
Photo: Manuel Serrano/Getty Images
The absence of Karim Benzema due to injury against Real Mallorca, will lead to Eden Hazard’s jump to ownershipafter his good performance in the Champions League against Celtic, as confirmed by his coach Carlo Ancelotti who assured that the Belgian is not going to “ask him to score goals”.
Eden Hazard has not played a game as a starter for Real Madrid in La Liga since January 23, 2022 in the 2-2 draw against Cádiz. 231 days have passed (7 months and 19 days) since the Belgian is back in the starting eleven for the meringues.
“The idea I have is that Hazard, who did well when he came on against Celtic, I’m going to play it tomorrow and hopefully I can do it again and play a good game”, Ancelotti confirmed at a press conference resolving the doubt of 9 among the candidates in the squad due to an injury to Benzema.
The Madrid coach defended that the presence of Hazard at the point of attack is not going to change his system despite having different qualities than Karim Benzema. He was surprised that among what he asks of the Belgian is not the goalscoring responsibility that the player who plays 9 at Real Madrid has historically always assumed.
“The system is the same. When Hazard came on against Celtic we kept him. It may be that he doesn’t have Karim’s scoring streak because he hasn’t played for a long time. I’m not going to ask him to score goals, I’m going to ask him to play well to maintain a good offensive attitude”, he defended.
The Belgian showed good flashes of his game during Celtic where he gave an assist for the 2-0 to Luka Modric, and then sentenced the score by pushing the ball for 3-0 in a play where Real Madrid gave more than 36 touches in a row.
Ancelotti defends that he has players in his squad who can cover the gap left by Benzema, but acknowledges that he does not have a substitute for his profile after giving up the arrival of a striker in the last transfer market.
“We do not have a natural replacement for Karim because he is the best striker in the world, there is no substitute on the market.but it can be replaced with other players with different characteristics”, he sentenced.
Read also:
Trevor Sinclair apologized for comments on the death of Queen Elizabeth II: “I apologize for any offense caused to those who mourn”
Henry Martín admitted that he could betray the Águilas del América: “Chivas is one of the greatest in Mexico”