Chelsea legend and assistant coach Gianfranco hails Belgian playmaker Eden whose late winner at Anfield ensures Blues win 2-1 and knock out Liverpool
Chelsea's Eden Hazard (right) celebrates after scoring against Liverpool in a League Cup match at Anfield on Wednesday. Pic/getty Images
Eden Hazard was described by Chelsea assistant boss Gianfranco Zola as one of the world's best players and getting better and better after the forward's stunning late goal sealed a 2-1 League Cup win at Liverpool.
Brilliant run
Hazard sent an emphatic strike past Simon Mignolet at the end of a wonderful run in the 85th minute of the third-round tie as Chelsea came from behind and halted the Reds' winning start to the season.
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When it was put to Zola afterwards that former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher had said Hazard was the Premier League's best player, the Italian said he felt the assessment was correct.
Gianfranco Zola
"I think Eden is one of the best players in Europe and one of the best players in the world, for sure, and what he's done, that goal, is proof of that," Zola said. "He is getting better and better. He is doing the right things at the right moment and in a wonderful way." Hazard got away from Jordan Henderson and Fabinho and sent the ball through Roberto Firmino's legs out to Cesar Azpilicueta on the right. He then received it back, jinking past Naby Keita and then Alberto Moreno as he moved into the box, and shot across Mignolet into the net.
Besides scoring, Hazard, brought on as a substitute just before Daniel Sturridge's acrobatic 58th-minute opener, was also involved in the equaliser in the 79th minute when he delivered a free-kick, Ross Barkley's header was parried by Mignolet and Emerson Palmieri prodded in. The incident went to a VAR review for offside before the final call was made that the goal should stand.
Klopp: Liverpool unlucky
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp whose side's 100 per cent start had featured seven wins in all competitions, said: "I don't feel bad, because we were unlucky. You have a free-kick that was maybe not a free-kick."
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