Madrid (AFP)
Gareth Bale in all its states! Yesterday undesirable at Real Madrid, the Welsh striker has signed a providential double in Villarreal (2-2) before being excluded Sunday in the Championship of Spain. He still brings Real to four lengths of the leader, Atletico Madrid, winner of Eibar (3-2).
This is the story of an outlaw who returns to favor, then gets a red card avoidable in extra time: while the Real was led twice on goals from Gerard Moreno (12th) and Moi Gomez (74th), Bale scored with a flat foot at close range (45th + 1) and a left-angle shot (86th), bringing a brilliant response to his coach Zinédine Zidane who wanted his departure in the transfer window summer.
His record is nevertheless tainted by two yellow cards at the very end of the game, synonymous with exclusion (90 + 4), which will probably be suspended against Levante mid-September, after the international truce.
The truce, Atlético will pass well installed in the chair of leader since the club "colchonero" is the only one of Liga to have managed a box full of victories at the end of the third day, with a success in the forceps snatched in the 90th +1 thanks to Thomas Partey Sunday against Eibar.
"We must stay calm, this season is still very long," said modestly the coach of Atlético, Diego Simeone.
- Elusive Bale -
His team (1st, 9 pts) is ahead of Athletic Bilbao (2nd, 7 pts) and Sevilla FC (3rd, 7 pts). Real (5th, 5 pts), who has just played a second draw in a row, and Barça (8th, 4 pts), braked Saturday by the Osasuna promoted (2-2), are lagging despite the million euros invested this summer in transfers.
Moreover, it is not a rookie but an old banned, the elusive Basel, which preserved Sunday the "White House" of a first defeat in Liga this season.
On the first goal, certainly, it is a heelade of the Serbian reinforcement Luka Jovic that allows to shift Dani Carvajal, which offers the goal of the Eglisation on a plateau in Basel (45 + 1).
But then, the second goal of Bale owes nothing to anyone: the Welsh, launched on the right wing, transplanted in the axis and unchecked a close-angle grazing shot and flush with the post (86) that hit the mark .
On the same field where he had made his debut under the jersey merengue in 2013, the Welsh could even have been a decisive passer on a header for Karim Benzema, whose goal was canceled for offside (60).
- Diego Costa sounds the revolt -
Too bad that this match of the redemption of Bale was tainted by a red card avoidable late in the game ... And too bad for Real not to have won this meeting that held out his arms.
This is the case of Atlético who, for its part, managed to recover an initial handicap of two goals against Eibar, who scored quickly by Charles (7th) and Anaitz Arbilla (19th).
But striker "colchonero" Diego Costa sounded the revolt, delivering a decisive pass to Joao Felix for the first goal of the Portuguese jewel in Liga (27th). And in the second half, the entrants Vitolo (52) and Thomas Partey at the end of the suspense (90 + 1) snatched the victory.
All is not perfect in the game of this new Atlético, but the sauce begins to take after departures in the offseason of several executives (Griezmann, Godin ...) and the arrival of new faces like the Portuguese Joao Felix.
"There is a lot of pressure, a lot of new faces, we have to rebuild a team and that's just the beginning," commented coach Simeone, "the most important thing for us was to rebel after this hard blow, when we lost 2-0 after a quarter of an hour, an unusual scenario for our team. "
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