Chelsea ace Eden Hazard admits he's sees a chance to establish himself in the world stars pecking order at the World Cup.

Hazard is on a mission to fill the vacuum left by the World Cup departures of legends Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

He said: “They are not in the World Cup, so now it is time to shine. I want to go through the quarter-final, semi-final and maybe the final.

“I am not the only one, of course. Messi and Ronaldo, they are out now, but there are still a lot of good players at the World Cup. We will see at the end what happens."

Hazard, so vital to Chelsea's fortunes, is certain he is improving and getting closer to the players who have dominated the world player of the year title for a decade.

“I am a lot stronger than two years ago – or four years ago in Brazil, definitely," he said. “I have a lot more experience.

“Four years ago, it was our first major competition, all of us together.

“France was our second one – and knockout matches have a lot to do with experience. When you have a younger team, it is more complicated even if you have good players.

“Now I think most of us are between 25 and 30, so we have the same level of maturity and I think this will make the difference. We have top players. We play as a group, all together, it is not just one or two players, we have 23 players. It's in our hands."