Wales boss in awe of Gareth Bale

 
7 February 2013

Gareth Bale again stole the headlines and underlined his importance to Wales with a man-of-the-match display in their 2-1 win over Austria at the Liberty Stadium.

The Tottenham winger scored his 10th goal for his country with a smart finish as he made full use of Joe Allen's lovely lofted pass to open the scoring in the 21st minute.

He then turned provider seven minutes after the break - his pin-point cross allowing substitute Sam Vokes to head in the second - before being withdrawn on the hour.

Marc Janko pulled a goal back for Austria, but Bale's contribution ensured it was Wales who claimed a much-needed win, just the second of Chris Coleman's tenure, ahead of World Cup qualifiers with Scotland and Croatia next month.

Bale now has seven goals in his last nine internationals and prior to Vokes' header the 23-year-old had been the only player to score for Wales during Coleman's time in charge.

Having seen his star man continue a sparkling run of form which is reportedly attracting the attentions of Barcelona and Real Madrid, Coleman was effusive in his praise.

He said: "There are not many players that can do what he does.

"The cross for the second goal was great, he is such a threat and we know when we have him in the team we can afford to go without the ball for periods because he is such a danger when we get it to him.

"He changes the feel of a game and he is a big plus for us when he is playing on that form. He did two things tonight that not many players can do."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in