Hazard's Germany joke: "It would have been better not to keep your mouth shut and win"

Japan pulled off one of the surprises of the World Cup by beating Germany in their World Cup opener. Before the match, the headline was in the pre-match photo, in which the German players covered their mouths in protest at FIFA for censoring the rainbow armband.

Eden Hazard was asked about this issue and he surprised with his statements, in what seemed to be a full-fledged joke on the Germans: "Yes (they did it), but then they lost the game. It would have been better not to do it and win.

"We are here to play football. I'm not here to send a political message. We want to be focused on football," added the Madrid player in statements reported by 'RMC Sport'.

When pressed on the subject, Hazard referred to the FIFA threat if they had worn the armband: "I don't feel comfortable talking about that because I'm here to play football. They conditioned us a little bit with the threat of sanction. I didn't want to start the game with a yellow card, it would have been a problem for the rest of the tournament".