The Flying Welshman

With a minute to go in regulation, the score level at 2-2, Gareth Bale found the ball at his feet 30 yards out from goal at Upton Park Monday night. A few seconds later, the ball was in the back of the net and Tottenham Hotspur were in the lead. Tottenham went on to win the game 3-2, taking them into 3rd place in the League table. As the ball flew into goal having left Bale's foot, there was agony for the West Ham supporters and ecstacy for the Tottenham bunch. But, such has been Bale's form in general this season and the last dozen games in particular, that such feats have become the norm. 

Gareth Bale is currently White hot and has been on a tear since the New Year making a habit of scoring not just spectacular goals but also game clinching ones for his Tottenham side. The Welshman has scored 9 goals in his last 10 games since the turn of the year, 8 of which have come in the last 6 games alone. His game winning heroics at Upton Park were just the latest installment of the Gareth Bale show with similar efforts against Lyon in the Europa League and Newcastle, West Brom and Norwich in the league. He is Spurs' leading scorer with 19 goals for the season with 15 of those coming in the Barclays Premier League. He also has to his credit 9 assists . 

Just to put that in perspective, only 2 men have scored more goals in this edition of the Premier League - Robin van Persie (19) and Luis Suarez (18)  - while Michu with 15 goals  has the same as Bale. Van Persie and Suarez also fare better in the Assists department with 11 and 8 respectively.What must be considered along with these stats is that Bale plays as a left winger while the other three are employed in the forward position. This is the quartet that has been making headlines all season.

But, coming back to Bale, what has helped him score all those goals is the system that Andre Villas Boas has employed playing a 4-5-0 formation as Jermaine Defoe has struggled with injury while Emmanuel Adebayor has failed to recreate the form of last year. This has meant that Bale has been given more of a free hand to roam up top, drifting wide to supply the crosses as well as being the target man to latch onto balls from midfield. With his pace and dribbling ability, he can also create chances on his own taking on defenders at will. Add to that his free-kick taking ability, which has seen a huge improvement this season, making him an absolute nightmare for opposition defenders.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo had once written about Bale:

"Bale combines the height and build of an 800-metre runner like Steve Ovett with the acceleration and directness of a rugby winger like Bryan Habana. And, when he gets to the byline, he delivers curling crosses like a Brazilian". Big words indeed, but his performances this term have been nothing short of spectacular and the 23-year old is carving up a name for himself with speculation rife that Real Madrid will come calling in the summer.

Is he the player of the season in the English game ? Well, there's some way to go yet before we can decide that with plenty of crunch games between now and the end of the season which will decide which member of this quartet can lay claim to that accolade. For now, we can sit back, relax and tune in to watch the Flying Welshman work his magic as he leads the charge for his Tottenham side in what has been his best season ever in England.

UEFA Europa League results: Round of 32

The dust having settled on the marquee match of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 that was Real Madrid versus Manchester United, there was the small business of the Europa League getting back to business with its Round of 32 games. Some of the major results from last night’s action. 

Internazionale 2-0 CFR Cluj

Rodrigo Palacio netted both goals for Inter. The celebrations around the San Siro however were muted as star striker Diego Milito suffered a serious knee injury that forced him off and has now ended his season. Palacio came on to replace the Argentine and grab a brace for the hosts who were largely untroubled by their Romanian opponents and controlled the game from start to finish.

Zenit St. Petersburg 2-0 Liverpool

The Russian champions emerged from their Winter hibernation to beat Liverpool 2-0 in the 1st leg at home. After a first half that saw chances for both teams to go ahead, Zenit’s big money Brazilian import – Hulk – broke the deadlock with an unstoppable left footed long range drive that Pepe Reina could do nothing about. Brendan Rodger’s side began to fade as the match progressed and on 72 minutes substitute Sergei Semak doubled Zenit’s advantage with a simple tap in after some lapse defending from Liverpool. The loss compounded what has been a miserable week for the English side coming off  a 0-2 reverse at home to West Brom in the league that set back their European football aspirations for next season. 

Bayer Leverkusen 0-1 Benfica

Leverkusen were the better side on the day creating enough chances for a win, but it was the Portuguese visitors who grabbed the goal through Oscar Cardozo giving them a priceless away goal. Sidney Sam had a chance to level the tie late, but his effort was cleared off the line as Benfica went back home with a Road win.

Newcastle United 0-0 Metalist Kharkiv

The game may have ended goalless, but not for lack of attacking football by either team. Newcastle and Metalist, 2 sides known for their fluent attacking football, played out an entertaining draw at St. James’ Park. Having sold their star attacking midfielder Taison to Shakhtar in the winter break, Metalist lacked their usual menace in the final third. Instead it was their veteran keeper Olexander Goryainov who had a superb game to keep  the hosts at bay repelling efforts from Papiss Cisse and Moussa Sissoko as the game went on.  Alan Pardew while disappointed that the Magpies failed to gain an advantage from the home leg, would be happy that his side at least didn’t concede an away goal. 

Atletico Madrid 0-2 Rubin Kazan

This was the upset of the night as defending champions Atletico were beaten at home by 10 man Rubin Kazan to leave them with a mammoth task in the return leg in Russia. Both teams were unbeaten in this year’s competition coming into the game and took an early lead in the 6th minute through Gokdeniz Karadeniz after a spill from Atletico keeper Sergio Assenjo. Rubin captain Roman Sharanov was sent off for a 2nd yellow close to half-time after which Rubin closed their ranks and looked to defend their lead. Atletico couldn’t muster any breakthroughs though and in injury time, Rubin inflicted further misery on the defending champs, as they broke at pace from an Atletico corner with keeper Assenjo having gone up for the corner leaving the goal unmarked. Pablo Orbaiz coolly slotted home to send the Russian side delirious with joy. It was Atletico’s first defeat of the season and their first European home defeat since 2010.

Ajax 2-0 Steaua Bucharest

The Dutch champions took control of their Round of 32 tie with a measured performance at home. Rebounding from the disappointment of being eliminated from the Champions League, Ajax took the lead on 28 minutes through defender Toby Aldeirweirled. Shortly after half-time, Ricardo van Rhijn made it 2-0 to the hosts with a composed finish. With the win Ajax arrested a damaging run of 4 losses in their 5 previous European home games.

Anzhi Makhachkala 3-1 Hannover 96

Hannover stunned the big spending Russian side early with a Szabolcs Huszti goal. But, Samuel Eto’o pulled them back level 11 minutes before halftime after good work from new boy Willian as he burst down the right to cross it back for the Cameroon striker. Odil Ahmedov and Mbark Boussoufa added further goals in the 2nd half to give Guus Hiddink’s men a comfortable win.

Sparta Prague 0-1 Chelsea

Having suffered the ignominy of becoming the first Holders of the UEFA Champions League to be dumped out in the Group stages, Chelsea came away from Prague with a valuable away win thanks to Oscar’s goal. The Brazilian who came on as a sub scored within 33 seconds of his arrival after exchanging passes with Eden Hazard with a neat finish  and hand the advantage to the Londoners who until then had struggled to break down a compact Sparta side.

Borussia Monchengladbach 3-3 Lazio

The most entertaining game came in Germany as Lazio held Borussia Monchengladbach to a 3-3 draw scoring 3 priceless away goals in the process. Monchengladbach were the more threatening of the 2 sides and took the lead as Martin Stranzl converted the first of 3 penalties that the Germans earned during the game. Lazio missing injured striker Miroslav Klose leveled through Sergio Floccario. 5 minutes later, Borussia sitting deeper fell as Libor Kozak put Lazio ahead 2-1. The hosts were handed a 2nd penalty and a numerical advantage as Andre Dias saw Red, but Stranzl’s effort this time was saved by Federico Marchetti. Thorben Marx then made no mistake with Borussia’s 3rd penalty to make it 2-2. With 3 minutes left in regulation, Juan Arango’s marvelous free-kick from 30 metres out looked to have nailed the game, but Kozak grabbed his second and Lazio’s 3rd in the dying seconds to leave the Romans with the advantage going into the 2nd leg. 

Tottenham 2-1 Lyon

The hottest player in the Premier League, Gareth Bale, stretched his goal scoring exploits into Europe as his brace led Tottenham to a 2-1 home win over French side Lyon. The Wlelshman dispatched 2 freekicks in added time of each half into the Lyon goal to deny the visitors a share of the spoils. 19 year old left back Samuel Umtiti’s thunderous volley pulled Lyon back in the game early in the 2nd half. But Bale, had other ideas as he capped the night with a splendid free-kick to seal the deal for Tottenham.

Napoli 0-3 Viktoria Plzen

The other major upset came in Naples, where Napoli were humbled by a spirited Viktoria Plzen side. The Czechs managed to silence the big guns of Napoli while scoring 3 of their own past Morgan de Sanctis. The 3 strikes from Vladimir Darida, Frantisek Rajtoral and Stanislav Tecl mean Plzen literally have 1 foot in the next round as Napoli try and ponder how to recover from this major setback.

Here are the other results from yesterday’s games.
BATE Borisov 0-0 Fenerbahce
Levante 3-0 Olympiacos
Dynamo Kyiv 1-1 Bordeaux
Stuttgart 1-1 Genk
Basel 2-0 Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk