Search icon

Football

26th May 2018

WATCH: Gareth Bale scores stunning bicycle kick in Champions League final

Wayne Farry

My goodness gracious what a goal

There are bad goals and good goals in this world. Ones which are clearly better or worse than others. It’s a simple fact of life.

Then there are GOALS LIKE THIS. Gareth Bale, you wondrous man with your pirate’s aesthetic and your gymnast’s physique, coming over here to Kiev scoring goals of such a ludicrous quality that I literally jumped out of my seat.

Bale was introduced an hour into the Champions League final, taking the place of Isco, and wasted no time in blowing us all away into a tiny million pieces of pure awe.

It started with Marcelo, as many things regarding Madrid do, who launched in a high, curling ball towards Bale with his right foot. Frankly, it looked a bit too high, but then Bale – one can only assume – extended his leg at the knee as if it were a vacuum cleaner nozzle, and hit a frankly stunning strike past the disbelieving and jumping Loris Karius.

Bale celebrated exuberantly – as he deserves to do for the rest of his life after that, and Karius is by the looks of it still falling to the ground. Wow.