It’s only early November and Gareth Bale already has 11 goals under his belt this season.
The former Spurs star is a key cog for his club Real Madrid, but he’s THE key cog for his country and in their 2018 World Cup qualifier against Serbia he came up trumps (God – feels like we should stop using that phrase now) for Wales once again on the half hour with a well taken goal to give the home side the lead.
His strike from 18 years came after great work from Hal Robson-Kanu who chased down a lost cause and harried Matija Nastasic into giving the ball away, before firing it across the edge of the area to find Bale, who fired past Vlad Stojkovic in the Serbia goal.
Bale gives Wales the lead against Serbia pic.twitter.com/s88EIAYO1v
— Terje (@AFCTerje) November 12, 2016
The goal puts Bale just two strikes behind Wales legend Ian Rush in the all-time leading scorer stakes – a crown he now looks certain to take, assuming he doesn’t suffer a Wayne Rooney-esque collapse in form, which seems unlikely at the age of 27.
.@GarethBale11 is closing in:
28 – Ian Rush
26 – Gareth Bale
23 – Ivor Allchurch/Trevor Ford#WALSRB #TogetherStronger— FA WALES (@FAWales) November 12, 2016
With five minutes to go before the final whistle Bale was inches away from doubling Wales’ lead when he hit the post, but just seconds later Aleksandar Mitrovic went up the other end and equalised for Serbia.
After the match Bale said:
“We are so disappointed at the moment, we played great in the first half but then we faded. We dug in. It’s one of those things, you go so close at one end and then they go up and score.
“We believe we can still do it, we just need to keep working hard. At home we were confident, we were 1-0 up in the 85th minute, it’s two points lost.”
Bale has 11 goals and 4 assists in his last 15 Wales home games 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/SN3aPQ8AQn
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) November 12, 2016
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