Chelsea star Eden Hazard has a big batch of sour grapes right now after his national team was bounced by France yesterday in the World Cup semifinals. Hazard slammed the French playing style, stating that he would rather play the beautiful game in an aesthetically pleasing manner and lose than play ugly and win.
“I prefer to lose with Belgium than win with France. We play most beautifully. That’s more my style,” he told the media in postgame.
Hazard did begrudgingly admit that his Belgium side was bested by a superior team on Monday, even if he didn’t care for the manner in which it was achieved.
Samuel Umtiti provided the only scoring in the match, off of a set piece in the 51′.
“The little black spot is of course that goal from a set-piece, but we know Deschamps’ France,” Hazard said of the goal.
“We expected that, but we couldn’t find that little spark to score a goal. I didn’t find it. France scored first and it became difficult. We came up against a stronger team. We could have done better, but we didn’t.”
Before the match, Hazard revealed that he and his brothers supported France, not Belgium during their childhood as a photo of the trio in Les Bleus shirts leaked online. Thus his comments about comparing the Belgian and French playing styles could be construed as his feeling a need to reaffirm his patriotism.
Also, he is right about how Belgium have been the most fun side to watch in this tournament. Exhibit A is that fast-break game winning goal against Japan in the round of 16.
Entering the semi-finals, Hazard had picked an eerily accurate World Cup bracket, getting three of the final four correct, and the last four on the left side of the bracket perfectly right. His bracket is busted now though.
“There wasn’t a lot said in the dressing room after the loss, because there was a lot of sadness,” Eden Hazard said after Belgium was eliminated in the semis, the same stage they reached in 1986.
“We deserved better from this game, even if we expected that sort of game against a team that defends well and plays on the counter-attack.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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