Football
ESPN staff 10y

Gareth Bale: Real can win it all

Gareth Bale said Real Madrid can win "every tournament we're in" shortly after delivering the Copa del Rey trophy with the winning goal in Wednesday's final against Barcelona. 

#INSERT
type:image
caption:Gareth Bale sees many more trophies in Real Madrid's near future.
END#

Hunter: Bale vs. Neymar
Delaney: Three Things
Rigg: Hail Bale

With the final at Valencia's Mestalla stadium level at 1-1 in the 85th minute, Bale scored the winner when he exploded down the left side of the pitch, even running well out of bounds to avoid Marc Bartra, before racing into the area and rolling the ball under goalkeeper Jose Pinto.

"It's obviously a great feeling, but the most important thing is the team worked hard all game, and I thought we deserved to win on the night," Bale told reporters after the match.

Bale's goal went a long way toward paying back his world-record transfer fee of 100 million euros from the summer, and it should halt any jeers from fans, who whistled at him as recently as two weeks ago.

"Coming to such a massive club like Madrid, it's important to win trophies and we've gotten off to a good start now," Bale said. "Hopefully there's a lot more to come this season and we'll just keep working hard as we can."

With one trophy under their belt, Real now turn their attention to the Champions League, where they face a semifinal against Bayern Munich, and La Liga, where they trail leaders Atletico Madrid by three points with five rounds to play.

"The most important thing is we don't get too ahead of ourselves and take each game as they come," Bale said. "Every tournament we're in we believe we can win, and that's what we're going to try to do.

"It's a great experience for me in my first real, proper final. Obviously a great result, and everybody's happy.

"I think we have to aim as high as we can. Whatever competition we're in, we want to win it. We'll be working as hard as we can to win every title."

^ Back to Top ^