Opportunityforbaletocreatehis ownlegacy With Ronaldo in saddle, Juve eye European glory

Sidelined under Zidane, Welshman will lead Real’s assault in Champions League this season

MADRID: If the summer had gone differently, Gareth Bale might have been on a plane to Switzerland on Monday to play for Manchester United against Young Boys.

He could have been readying himself for a Champions League debut at the Allianz Arena for Bayern Munich against Ajax.

That scenario never looked more likely than on May 26. Bale was left out of the Champions League final team to face Liverpool, came off the bench to score with an astonishing bicycle kick, and then declared during the celebrations he would be considering his future.

Instead, within a week of beating Liverpool, Zidane resigned. He sent texts to a select group of senior players but the first Bale heard of the Frenchman’s departure was via an official message from the club.

The meeting with Perez was shelved until a new coach was appointed and, six weeks later, Cristiano Ronaldo had departed too. When Zidane left, Bale stayed silent. When Ronaldo left, Bale posted a gushing farewell message on Twitter.

“It has been a pleasure to play alongside you,” he wrote.

But while the Portugese was there, it would always be Ronaldo’s Real Madrid, not least because Ronaldo delivered consistency while Bale was too often curtailed by injury.

Madrid begin the defence of their Champions League crown at home to Roma this week and the talk now is of a team more balanced, more united even, without Ronaldo. The wisdom of selling though will not be judged on wins over Getafe, Girona and Leganes but Madrid’s performances in the big games, the ones Ronaldo used to settle, and now Bale has the chance to rise to.

“When someone like Cristiano leaves there is always going to be a spotlight on who is going to replace him,” Wales coach Ryan Giggs said earlier this month.

The first stage of Bale’s Real Madrid career, with Ronaldo, was a huge success, dampened by injury. The second stage, without Ronaldo, starts against Roma on Wednesday.

PRESSURE ON BALE

With Zinedine Zidane regularly benching him last season, it looked like Gareth Bale was on his way out of Real. He also spoke about considering his future after scoring in the Champions League final against Liverpool having come off the bench.

But following the departure of the Frenchman and Cristiano Ronaldo, Bale has emerged as the main man under the new coach Julen Lopetegui. The pressure will be on the Welshman to deliver as patience is very thin among those who call the shots at Real.

CORE INTACT YOUNGSTERS SHINE

G A Real president Florentino Perez’s decision to not add glamour to the team after Ronaldo’s departure has given an opportunity to youngsters like Dani Ceballos, Marco Asensio (left) and Lucas Vazquez to start matches more regularly.

While Ceballos, who got limited opportunities under Zidane, has already impressed the new coach Lopetegui, Asensio has taken over the position left vacant by Ronaldo and has been effective.

LOPETEGUI UNDER SCANNER

With the Real hierarchy demanding instant results, new coach Lopetegui (left) will have to start churning impressive results and he also has big boots to fill.

In the few matches that we have seen, Lopetegui has added more control and passing to go with their lethal counter-attacking game. But it remains to be seen whether it will work in the big games. While Ronaldo’s departure will surely hurt them at some point in the season, Real have made sure that the core of the team remains intact.

They have brought Thibaut Courtois under the bar but the four in front of him — Dani Carvajal, Raphael Varane, Sergio Ramos and Marcelo — have played a crucial role in them winning three successive Champions League titles. In the midfield, they have managed to hold on to Luka Modric, who was linked to a move with Inter Milan in the summer.

BALE IN CL

The Welshman’s numbers aren’t impressive when compared with Ronaldo, whom he has replaced as Real Madrid’s main man:

SEASON M

“It’s maybe a bit more relaxed (without Ronaldo). I suppose there is more of a team, more working as one unit rather than one player.” GARETH BALE,

Real Madrid forward

TV TIMINGS

Shakhtar Donetsk v Hoffenheim, 10:25pm; Valencia v Juventus, 12:30am (Thu), live on Sony TEN1&HD

Ajax v AEK Athens, 10:25pm; Real Madrid v Roma, 12:30am (Thu), live on Sony Ten 2 & HD Young Boys v Man United, live on Sony ESPN & HD, 12:30am (Thu)

Man City v Lyon, live on Sony Six & HD, 12:30am (Thu)

Benfica v Bayern, live on Sony Ten 3 & HD, 12:30am (Thu)

consecutive seasons Real are playing in the Champions League, the longest run in the history of the competition. They have always made it out of the group stages, reaching the semi-finals in the past eight seasons. VALENCIA:NO player owns as many Champions League titles as Cristiano Ronaldo but a sixth with Juventus would surely be his best of the lot.

Ronaldo played the lead role in all of those five previous triumphs, from his towering header for Manchester United against Chelsea in 2008 to the tie-clinching, 97th-minute penalty against Juventus last season in the quarters. In between, there were the 17 goals he scored in every game but one en route to the trophy in 2014, the title-winning penalty against Atletico Madrid in 2016 and the hat-trick against the same opposition, this time in the last four, a year later. He would also score twice against Juventus in the final. It was to become the beneficiaries, rather than victims, of these match-winning moments, that Juve seemingly decided last summer the only way to win the Champions League before Ronaldo retires is to have Ronaldo on your team.

They begin that assault on Wednesday, when the 33-year-old will kick a ball competitively in Spain for the first time since his dizzying 100 million-euro move from Madrid.

Valencia are the obstacle at the Mestalla, where he scored twice, both penalties, for his former team last term.

Many were shocked when Ronaldo drew a line under his time in the Spanish capital, with most believing his complaints to be the latest round of posturing aimed at those higher at the club. They were, but this time he meant it. Lionel Messi told Catalunya Radio earlier this month: “I was surprised, I didn’t imagine him leaving Madrid or that he would go to Juve.”

There is merit and romance in Messi sticking with his boyhood Barcelona but even he must find it hard not to admire Ronaldo’s gumption. More trophies and records would inevitably have followed at Madrid but instead he started again, risking his reputation for somewhere new.

There is risk too for Juventus, who have shelled out the first three-figure sum ever paid for a player in their thirties, and one that represents a very different model to the free-flowing forward that used to terrorise defences left, right and centre.

The Ronaldo who Real Madrid decided could be sold is a predator, a throw-back number nine, that limits his exertions to the penalty box, with the caveat he can still run fast, jump high and shoot with both feet.