Bale flies after the slowdowns

The spotlights refocus on Gareth Bale. The Welsh will face a umpteenth test in the 11 remaining league games, but eleven Real Madrid player already knows this position. Without going any further, Bale has already experienced these situations in both mini leagues: The first was when Zidane took over the Madrid squad for the first time. They ran the first days of 2016. One of the first ideas that the Madrid coach dealt with was a quick physical preparation to sing the Madrid players. That first week of work led to a league match against Deportivo de La Coruña, and where the Welshman was the best of the match. The whites won 5-0 and Bale was the main protagonist by scoring a hat-trick, with two goals from the head and another to pass by Lucas Vázquez. It is his last hat-trick in league with the white shirt …

The second time was with the return in 2019 of Zidane to the Madrid bench. The French coach who arrived imposing a ‘clean slate and new account’ in the face of the chaotic situation that prevailed within the white team (there was talk that Solari wanted to fine Isco, the tremendous defeats and eliminations against Ajax and Barcelona), the Welshman returned to be the protagonist by scoring the second goal from Madrid to Celta in March 2019. It was his last goal as a Madrid player at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. 456 days have passed since then…

Now after this mandatory stoppage due to the coronavirus pandemic, Bale is shaping up to be one of the tricks that Zidane can make use of. Without going any further, it would not be ruled out that he was a starter against Eibar (along with Hazard and Benzema), something that has not happened since last February 16 against Celta (2-2). The truth is that this season is not that of the Welsh player: he has only participated in 18 games, of which he has only finished five and came out in the starting eleven in 13 other games.