Hazard's roller coaster

Hazard returns and does it in the best possible scenario for a footballer with his club: the Champions League. For the visit to Borussia Mönchengladbach, Zinedine Zidane called up the Belgian star for the first time this season. The ordeal he suffers with injuries has prevented him from making his debut in Madrid's seven games this season. His last encounter with the white shirt (pink on that occasion) was precisely in the Champions League more than two and a half months ago, in the second leg of the round of 16 against Manchester City. Eden started and played 83 minutes in that game.

With that meeting Hazard reached 50 games played in the highest continental competition. A number of participations that may seem short for a player of his stature (nine of his teammates have played more games), but in his 7 years at Chelsea, the team blue failed twice to qualify for the Champions League. His resume includes 33 other European club matches: 31 in the Europa League (which he has won twice – in 2013 and 2019, the latter just before signing for Real Madrid – and 2 in the European Super Cup).

A trajectory that has been of highs and lows, alternating seasons with an acceptable scoring and assists production with others of drought, as was last year in Madrid. With Chelsea he averaged a goal every four full games (every 365.9 minutes, specifically), a worse pace than in the Premier League, which has been the competition where he has stood out the most as a scorer (in the English league he scored a goal every 229 minutes ).

His debut in the Champions League did not occur with Chelsea, but with Lille, the club in which he formed after leaving his home in Tubize and in which he stayed for 7 years until he made the leap to the London club. The 7 goals and 11 assists he scored in the 2010-11 season helped Lille lift their first league since 1954 and the consequent participation in the Champions League, the fourth for the club. Hazard did not score in the 6 matches of the competition that he played with the northern French team, but left the first of the 10 assists he has given in the European Cup.

The 8 goals he has scored in the Champions League have all been with Chelsea, including two doubles against Maribor and Roma. To his companions blue He gave them 8 assists, so in the five editions in which he participated, he contributed to 18% of Chelsea's goals. He played 38 games and played 2,928 minutes, 76.9% of all possible.

With Madrid last season he played 6 games, in which he failed to score. After a disputed start in white, Hazard was beginning to emerge as a Real Madrid player when a kick from his compatriot Meunier in the match against PSG at the Bernabéu kept him out for two and a half months. When he reappeared, he was injured again and had to undergo surgery. That injury prevented him from being in the first leg against City, but the postponement of the competitions due to the pandemic allowed him to reach the return, of course, after dragging discomfort throughout the final stretch of the League. After missing the first match against Shakhtar, Hazard returns to the scene in Mönchengladbach.