Belgium said goodbye to Eden Hazard (32) on Saturday evening. The wing attacker retired as an international for the Red Devils. He was waved goodbye in the King Baudouin Stadium.
Belgium waves goodbye to Hazard: “One of the best teammates ever”
“Where is that party…,” Hazard started to whip up the Belgian public. With this, the 126-time international referred to one of his highlights as a player of the national team. In 2018, Hazard was the taste maker of the team that finished third at the World Cup. When the Belgian team returned to their own country at the time, Hazard set things up with that sentence.
Hazard was driven around in a car to wave goodbye to the crowd. The winger, who is saying goodbye to Real Madrid this summer, enjoyed it to the fullest, he told Het Nieuwsblad. He said, “It’s emotional to be celebrated like this. I cherish all the moments from the fourteen years that I played for the Red Devils.”
“Now I’m going to enjoy my vacation and family first,” Hazard continued his acceptance speech. “Now I have plenty of time to think, then we’ll see it again,” Hazard said. The attacker still has no club for next season.
It was nice to see that opponent David Alaba mingled with Hazard’s family. The Austrian was a teammate of the Belgian in Madrid and built up a warm relationship with the attacker. “We lived on the same street. He’s one of the best teammates I’ve had,” Alaba said.
“I would have loved to play against him,” the Austrian continued. “What’s his level? What do you think? He just trained at Real Madrid. The very highest level. You have to ask him if he wants to continue, but what he has already achieved is unbelievable. I love him.”
Belgium star knows what to do: “It had to be better”
Belgium had hoped for more against Austria, but got stuck on a 1-1 draw. Jéremy Doku was one of the bright spots among the Belgians.
Austria took the lead early on through an own goal from Orel Mangala, but Romelu Lukaku leveled the score in the second half. National coach Domenico Todesco is obviously disappointed that his team is no longer in it. “The first half was okay, until the goal against,” he tells VTM.
“This team is not used to being behind, you can see that. It was the first time since I’ve been here that we’ve had a chase. In my opinion, it was too little in the first half. The intensity was too low. That’s okay for Austria, but not for us,” he added.
The Austrian defense had a hard time with the lightning-fast Doku at times. Although he was comfortable at times, there is also work to be done: finishing was difficult. He said, “I did a lot of sprints, but that last pass or that last action had to be better. Only I also had the impression that the referee was against me and did not whistle for me. Very often when I left, I was knocked down. I should have received at least three or four fouls.”
