Gareth Bale scored twice as Real Madrid steered Celta Vigo 6-0 on Saturday to give mentor Zinedine Zidane a choice cerebral pain for the Champions League last.
With Cristiano Ronaldo again sidelined with a lower leg damage, Welsh star Bale ventured into the spotlight with two first-half strikes to push his case for a beginning spot in the European show-stopper against Liverpool in Kiev in two weeks. Bundle opened his record following 13 minutes on Saturday, grabbing a sweetly-coordinated through ball from Luka Modric to score.
His second on the half-hour stamp saw him dash to the byline before tucking the ball to the other side of a safeguard and afterward releasing a sharp left-footed crash into the edge of the net. “It’s better for everybody to be over-persuaded and prepared,” conceded Zidane. “It will be a cerebral pain to assemble a group for the Champions League last.”
Isco made it 3-0 for Real following 32 minutes before Moroccan midfielder Achraf included the fourth, seven minutes into the second half. On a hopeless night for mid-table Celta, Sergi Gomez put through his own net on 74 minutes, leaving German internatonal Toni Kroos to hide Real’s 6th objective following 81 minutes.
Elsewhere, Samu Castillejo scored twice as Villarreal beat relegated Deportivo La Coruna 4-2 to leapfrog Betis into fifth, with Denis Cheryshev also netting a day after being recalled to the preliminary Russian World Cup squad.