Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale has revealed that he felt angry to have been left on the Real Madrid bench for last season’s Champions League final against Liverpool.
Wales forward Bale found himself among the substitutes in Kiev, eventually being called upon by Zinedine Zidane just after the hour and then helped turn the match around with a second-half double.
Within three minutes of his introduction, Bale had converted an acrobatic bicycle kick from Marcelo’s floated cross to put Real Madrid ahead and later added a long-range second past Loris Karius to help seal a 3-1 victory.
Looking back on that night in the Ukraine, Bale reflected on the emotions he felt when learning he had not made the starting XI despite his good scoring form in the run-up to the showpiece final.
“Angry. Quite angry, to be honest,” Bale told the Daily Mail. Obviously, I felt I deserved to start the game. I’d been scoring goals. So yeah, I suppose it was hard to put the anger aside.”