Captain Hazard ready to take Belgium all the way in Qatar

Eden Hazard

Belgium skipper Eden Hazard said his country need to win the World Cup in Qatar to justify the ‘golden generation’ tag they have carried for the past 10 years as they look to deliver the country’s first major trophy. The 31-year-old Real Madrid forward has captained Belgium since 2015 and will participate in his third World Cup, hoping to go further than their third place at Russia 2018. “I have to set the bar high. I’m going to try to do better than in 2018. It’ll be tough because that was already pretty good,” Hazard told the FIFA website. “I’m fortunate to be the captain of a great team and a big footballing nation, and so we owe it to ourselves to have high expectations.” A generation of top players representing some of Europe’s biggest clubs like Hazard, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku have given hope to a nation of almost 12mn people that they can win a major trophy at last. “There’s always talk of the ‘golden generation’ but there’s some truth to it. We’ve spent almost 10 years together. Now we’ve got young players starting to come through,” Hazard said. “Of course, we’ve got an incredible generation of players, but we still haven’t won anything. If we really want to earn that ‘golden generation’ nickname, I think that’s the one thing we still need to do. Our collective experience has definitely helped us in previous tournaments, so I hope that it will continue in the same vein for some time yet.” Belgium kick off their campaign against Canada on November 23 before facing Morocco four days later and Croatia on December 1. Spurred on by massive popular fervour, Belgium should have the wherewithal to extricate themselves from a tricky-looking group that includes the runners-up from four years ago, Croatia, a constantly improving Morocco, and a Canada team that took everyone by surprise during the Concacaf qualifiers. On Belgium’s World Cup opponents, Hazard said: “We’re going to play some pretty good teams: Croatia, Morocco and Canada. Everyone’s familiar with Croatia; they’ve got some incredible players. I’m fortunate enough to play alongside Luka Modric, their captain, every day. There’s not much you can say about him that hasn’t already been said. They’re a talented team, and that’s why they reached the final four years ago. We don’t know Canada and Morocco as well, but we’ll have the time to learn all about them. They’ve got very good players. Morocco have Achraf Hakimi in their team, so that shows you that they have a lot of potential as well. In any case, the fact that they’ve made it to the World Cup is a sign they’re a great team. Canada have some skilful players too, like Jonathan David. I don’t know him personally, but I’ve been keeping an eye on him because he’s at Lille, one of my former clubs. “It’s always enjoyable to play against sides from other continents that you don’t know all that well, to learn about their style of play and their mental approach. That’s the beauty of the World Cup,” he said. But Belgium with Roberto Martinez at the helm have the firepower to lift the title. On Martinez’s main attribute as a coach, Hazard said: “It would be difficult to just pick one. I think he has a lot of great attributes, and he’s shown that for several years now, and that was the case even before he took charge of the national team,” said the midfielder. “He’s the kind of person who absolutely loves football and is truly excited by sport. He’s always exploring new methods. He talks a lot with his players, and I think that’s probably his best quality as a coach. I don’t care for coaches who aren’t close to their players, even if they’re great at their job. This is especially true for national coaches, given that we don’t see each other very often,” he added. Hazard has suffered from several injuries over the past few months with Real Madrid. The Belgian international arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu in 2019 from Chelsea in a move costing Madrid at least £88mn. He had become a fan favourite at the Blues and was regarded as one of the Premier League’s best players. But has failed to replicate that form in La Liga though and even struggles to get minutes on the pitch under Carlo Ancelotti. A series of injuries and unconvincing performances have seen him slip well down the pecking order since the Italian took charge at the start of last season. “It’s been a bit tricky,” Hazard said. “There have been a few things: quite a few injuries, as well as doubts and stuff like that. But now, everything’s back to normal. The one thing I’m looking forward to is being able to prove on the pitch that I’m still at my best, and there’s not much else to say on that topic.”