BALE FORCE
Hat-trick hero saves his best until last as skipper snatches victory at death
GARETH BALE had to block out painful memories of his Euros penalty miss to keep Wales’ World Cup bid alive with a stunning hat-trick.
Wales’ record scorer missed from the spot against Turkey in a tense win in the group stages of the Euros and also had a spot-kick saved back at Real Madrid in pre-season.
It helped stretch his goalless run to 16 internationals coming into this World Cup qualifier in neutral Kazan because of sanctions against Belarus.
The Dragons’ superstar, back in the fold at Real Madrid this term after his loan to Spurs, was deadly yesterday.
He scored penalties in either half and then came up with a dramatic stoppage time winner to take his tally to 36 goals in 98 games.
Skipper Bale, 32, admitted: “Of
WALES
course you have it in the back of your mind. Missed penalties are a thing in football, it happens.
“It is how you bounce back and it is great to score two penalties because they were important goals.”
Skipper Bale opened the scoring from the spot in the fifth minute after he was brought down by the keeper.
Wales failed to build on their promising beginning.
The hosts hit back to lead at the break with two goals in 92 seconds from Vitali Lisakovich’s penalty and Pavel Sedko’s closerange finish in the 29th and 30th minute respectively. Belarus could even have extended their lead before the break as Vladislav Klimovich shot wide.
Bale equalised in the 69th minute after Ben Davies was shoved by Max Ebong.
Wales then snatched it in the 93rd minute when hero Bale completed his hat-trick.
Sub Mark Harris had two efforts saved initially before Dan James picked out Bale to net with a left-foot shot on the turn which keeper Syarhey Chernik let squirm into the net
Bale said: “It was last-gasp, everything was in the box bouncing around.
“I tried to hook it in and as soon as I saw it go past his fingers I was absolutely ecstatic. I knew it was right in the last seconds.”
Victory keeps alive Wales’ chances of topping the group to reach the next World Cup automatically. Bale said: “It was a massive win. Every game counts and these kind of games when you are expected to win are probably the hardest.
“Everything was against us, it wasn’t a good first half whatsoever, but I thought in the second half we really changed that and got on the front foot.”
Wales boss Rob Page was without 13 players including Aaron Ramsey, Joe Rodon and Kieffer Moore.
He said: “What pleases me is the resilience we showed.
“Sometimes you just have to find a way to win.
“What we have now is a team that will keep going right until the end and fight for that win.
“Thankfully we have done that and hopefully that will fill us with confidence.
“The big players stepped up, Gareth deserves the plaudits.”