Eden Hazard desperate to avoid another early Champions League exit

Chelsea forward Eden Hazard is hopeful he can reach the knock-out stages of the Champions League this season, after falling just short with Lille last term.

The Blues need to beat FC Nordsjaelland on Wednesday and hope Shakhtar Donetsk defeat Juventus in Ukraine if they are to advance.

And Hazard says the situation reminds him of last term, when Lille also needed victory in their final match but could only draw 0-0 with Trabzonspor and CSKA Moscow went through.

"Everything depends on the last match, unfortunately," said the Belgian. "We have to get a result from the last match whatever happens elsewhere. At Lille last season it was the same, we absolutely had to win, but we did not succeed, sadly.

"At Chelsea the aim is to win the competition, whereas at Lille the aim was to get past the first stage. It is also different with the supporters because here they expect you to win games and you feel the greater expectations.

"But there are similarities, yes indeed, and I hope this year we do manage to get past the group stages."

Hazard admits he is hoping to improve the consistency of his play but says he has enjoyed linking up with Juan Mata and Oscar during the early stages of his Chelsea career.

"We are all quite similar," he said. "We are small players and we like to play with the ball at our feet. As soon as we started playing together we understood each other really well on the pitch - now the most important thing is that it helps us to win matches, because that's what really matters.

"There are always things that you want to improve. I've played some good games and some bad games.

"The important thing is to concentrate every match and try to do better, so you have no regrets after the game, saying 'I should have done this and I should have done that'. Every match you play, you have to play to your best and be more consistent, scoring more goals. That's the thing."

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Source: SkySports