“If Madrid arrives in Paris, only a fool would bet against Bale”

Gareth Bale shone again with Wales. The Real Madrid striker, who had spent unprecedented weeks and weeks in the Spanish capital, left with his team and left it closer to the World Cup in Qatar scoring a magical brace for the 2-1 victory against Austria that left the team of his partner David Alaba without a ticket for the appointment.

After criticism for his appearance, from the British press he tries to defend his player and Oliver Holt does so in a long column in the Daily Mail.

“It’s a strange instinct to hate one of your most decorated players. Imagine United fans hating Cristiano, Chelsea fans hating Drogba or City fans Yaya Touré. Imagine hating Bale and making him the focus of anger. It’s like hating ice cream vanilla with lots of topping and a magical left foot. Opinions about players change. It’s football. It happened to me. At a press conference, Sir Alex Ferguson lost patience over the criticism of Verón. He threw all the recorders on the ground and said “He is a fucking great player and you are fucking idiots”, began his thesis comparing the Welshman with the popular dessert and making a comparison with Verón’s situation at Old Trafford.

To continue with his approach, the columnist for the British newspaper analyzed Bale’s situation in relation to other players and pointed out red lines in addition to certain causes, according to his point of view, for criticism. “Normally there is more logic in the criticism. Pogba is not among the favorites at Old Trafford because his form is inconsistent and he has never won the biggest trophies. Instead, tell Bale to show you his medals. It happens to Neymar or Messi Others for more obvious reasons. Bale should not be immune to criticism. I criticized him myself. But call him a parasite? Really? Maybe it’s because Bale doesn’t play public relations. Perhaps it’s because, in the past, he’s reacted to such criticism with humor with his teammates holding up that banner that said ‘Wales, Golf, Madrid. In that order’. It didn’t go well,” he explained.

According to Holt, Bale has an interesting final stage of his career and that Real Madrid is not finding the best way to manage it. “It is clear that the best days of Bale at 32 years old have passed. There are times that on his return to the Premier you could feel that his marginalization in Madrid was not as rare as it seemed to us. But the impact he had against Austria shows that Real Madrid and those who doubted his ability to shine have been far wrong. If that doesn’t happen in Madrid, where he has barely played this season, maybe they should take a look at themselves. Maybe they should wonder why their coach can’t get the best out of Baland. If Rob Page does it, why not Carlo Ancelotti? His ‘cameo’ at Tottenham solves the mystery of why he is not a starter at Real Madridbut his appearances for the national team show that he is still a player capable of the best on the pitch,” he writes.

To finish, he tries to protect the player and opens one of his favorite scenarios: the Champions League finals. There Bale tied the tie in Lisbon and was key to the victory in kyiv with an anthological goal from the Chilean, entering this one among the best scored in the last and decisive match. I assure Holt that if Madrid reaches the final, they should not underestimate Bale. “Instead of trying to kick him out, his critics should remember that two Champions Leagues that Madrid won were won by Bale when he came off the bench. If Madrid reach the final in Paris, only a fool would bet against Bale doing it a third time. “, he sentenced.