It was the surprise news of the night. Carlo Ancelotti had left Eden Hazard out of his starting XI to face Inter in Milan, despite the fact the Belgian had played a phenomenal game at the same venue in 2020/21.
Ancelotti, instead, elected to select Lucas Vazquez instead, leaving Hazard on the bench, but even when the former Everton coach was making substitutions to freshen his team up in the latter stages, he didn’t turn to the former Chelsea forward.
Vinicius Jr was effervescent on the left side and his partnership with Karim Benzema caused the Italian champions some problems.
Hazard, though, was left to watch on from the sidelines and he didn’t get brought on, leaving him without minutes for the first time this season.
He did pick up a knock from a challenge against Celta Vigo on Sunday, but it wasn’t thought to be significant enough to keep him out of a match entirely.
Yet, the choices made by Ancelotti were vindicated as Rodrygo Goes scored the winning goal after coming off the bench.
