These are the nights that made Eden Hazard so desperate to join Real Madrid. A packed and expectant Bernabeu, the world watching on TV and the chance to become a hero from a position of adversity.
It is still possible that the 31-year-old can produce the decisive moment against Paris Saint Germain tomorrow night but the grim reality for a player who finds himself drifting silently into the sunset is he appears more likely to remain stuck to the substitutes’ bench.
Hazard has moulded a groove in those warm race-car style seats, seldom making it onto the grass for a meaningful period of action. He has completed 90 minutes just once in his third season in Madrid, his only goal has come in the Copa del Rey and the solitary assist came in August.
In more than two and a half seasons Hazard has accumulated 2,854 minutes and, according to transfermarkt, 15 separate injuries or illnesses that have made him unavailable for 61 games.
But he has only been ruled out of four matches this season; the inaction a consequence of him being so drastically out of condition and form that Carlo Ancelotti has demoted him to somewhere just above Gareth Bale in the hierarchy.
For comparison Hazard played 2,923 league minutes in his final Chelsea campaign and across seven years in West London missed 21 games. He rode hefty challenges, played through aches and niggles and produced countless moments of brilliance to ensure a place in the pantheon of Premier League greats.
What we are witnessing now is the rapid demise of a player who at his best could thrill to the same standard as Lionel Messi. The days of him gliding effortlessly past defenders lunging to impede him with often comical desperation appear over. The feints and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it changes of direction are consigned to nostalgic YouTube reels.
At 28 there were already a lot of miles on the clock and the frequency with which he was kicked by frustrated defenders will have taken its toll. His skillset, built on the foundations of acceleration and agility if not blistering top speed, is not a great match with longevity.
Hazard’s fade could be used as a sad case study of how footballers are being pushed to breaking point by an unrelenting calendar and it is worth recalling Jose Mourinho's warning in 2015 that referees needed to take more care.
“The way, match after match, he's being punished by opponents and he's not being protected by referees, maybe one day we don't have Eden Hazard,” Mourinho said before saying that the forward was too honest and should go down a little easier.
And yet everyone is familiar with the stories of relative excess, an approach that is hardly conducive to prolonging a career into the mid-thirties.
“He loves hamburgers and pizza, I saw him all the time in pizzerias,” former Chelsea goalkeeper Marcin Bulka said midway through Hazard’s first season in Spain. “He doesn’t care about anything other than football and having a good time. In Chelsea, this was not a problem, but at Real, especially with the recent injury, he probably went a bit overboard with the weight.”
Then there was Filipe Luis, the former Chelsea full back, saying last year that Hazard would be playing Mario Kart in the dressing room five minutes before games and heading down the tunnel with his laces untied.
Those tales made Hazard more loved as a player, shaping the impression of him being a regular guy with magic in his feet. But takeaways and gaming is not the recipe for prolonging careers at the top.
“Perhaps he lacks a little bit of ambition to say, 'I am going to be the best player in the world',” Filipe Luis added. “Because he could be."
That was the thinking behind going to Real, the bigger platform (and softer domestic opposition conducive to stat padding) elevating him to Ballon d’Or contention. The truth is he is more likely to be seen holding some Lindor.
Reports of a Chelsea return continue to surface, even if there is barely a granule of truth in them, and the club can hardly be considered sentimental despite a penchant for re-signing players.
There seems no chance of him fitting into Thomas Tuchel’s system. Hazard was effectively replaced by Christian Pulisic, whose approach is more artisan than artist, and while the American has had injury problems of his own there is no disputing his application when available.
Hazard has two seasons remaining on his contract in Madrid and it is notable that the narrative has taken on more than a passing similarity to Bale. The transfer talk is focused around loaning him out because, presumably, no one will be willing to pay a fee for a player who commands £20million per year in wages.
Instead he seems destined to fade away without a ripple. A Chelsea great; just another expensive Real Madrid flop.
