Chelsea legend Eden Hazard will be hopeful his beloved Belgium can make themselves one of the contenders to win the World Cup this summer, although he thinks a current Blue is going to have a big impact on one of the dark horses.
The first round of games are now done, with England’s Reece James being amongst the big winners following a 4-2 win against Croatia.
Enzo Fernandez also got off to a winning start with defending champions Argentina, although some believe he is playing to convince Real Madrid to pull the trigger and sign him to the club.
Reece James as a central midfielder or a right-back under Xabi Alonso?👀
The million pound question!
Eden Hazard names Ecuador as World Cup dark horses because of Moises Caicedo
There was an unfortunate late defeat for Moises Caicedo’s Ecuador, who are under pressure to put three points on the board against Curacao in their second game of the tournament.
An excellent qualifying campaign, where Caicedo starred, saw a lot of people fancy the South Americans to have a good tournament, and Hazard is no different.
He told the Chelsea TikTok page that the presence of Caicedo makes Ecuador one of the dark horses to compete this summer in North America.
He said: “I think the dark horses, you know who it’s gonna be? I think it’s going to be Ecuador, because they have Caicedo, and we are Chelsea, so I’m going for Caicedo and Ecuador.”
A lot will come down to their last game of the group stages, where they will face a Germany side with Kai Havertz leading the line.
Nicolas Jackson can thrive under Xabi Alonso 🔥
He was a threat for Senegal against France!
Belgium desperately missing Eden Hazard at this World Cup
The days of the golden generation of Belgium are now gone, and they struggled to get a point from their first game against Egypt.
The Red Devils laboured for large portions of the game, and look a long way off the side who finished third in 2018.
Back then, Hazard was in scintillating form, and proved very difficult to stop for the likes of Brazil.
The likes of Jeremy Doku are simply not at that level, and right now it looks difficult to see them reaching the latter stages of this tournament
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