“Bale is not going to play against Rayo because, like Alaba, he has had an overload this week and the two are not available for the game.or. They will return to training next week. In this way Carlo Ancelotti (62 years old, Reggiolo) explained a new absence of the Welsh attacker (32 years old). Bale has not played since February 15, when he jumped onto the pitch at the Parc des Princes to settle just over three minutes of the match between the whites and PSG. It was his fifth appearance this season dressed in white: four league games plus his testimonial appearance at the Parisian stadium. All of them far from the Santiago Bernabéu stadium…
And it is precisely February 26 marks two years since the last time Gareth set foot in the Coliseum of La Castellana. It was in the Champions League round of 16 match between Real Madrid and Manchester City in February 2020. Yes, you read correctly: two years. That day, Bale was a substitute. Zidane gave him minutes in the 75th minute to replace Vinicius. From then until today, the Whites have played 48 home games in two stadiums, the Bernabéu itself and the Di Stéfano. Those four dozen are distributed as follows: 31 games at the Alfredo Di Stéfano and 17 at the Bernabéu. He has only participated in two games, both played at the stadium located in Valdebebas. The Welshman did not participate in the stadium in the center of Madrid…
Bale’s performance data in recent seasons.
BeSoccer Pro
Coincidentally, the date on which such an fateful event occurs coincides with Madrid’s visit to Rayo. A meeting in which the Welshman has also been the protagonist on several occasions. Without going any further, in the last Madrid trip to the Vallecano stadium it ended in a narrow defeat (1-0, Embarba’s goal, from a penalty). It was day 35 of the 2018-19 League. Zidane, who had arrived to replace Solari in the final stretch of the season, lined up an eleven of circumstances, with Varane and Vallejo forming the backbone, with Ceballos, Marcos Llorente, Modric and Kroos in midfield, with Bale and Mariano as forwards. But the worst came later, at the end of the match: the Madrid coach gave his players two days off, so Bale scheduled a trip to his native country, got on the bus, picked up his dinner bag, got off the bus and waited for a private car to take him to the airport to leave. That gesture would make the next two games see them from the bench… and earn Zidane’s rejection.
La Liga Santander
*Data updated as of February 25, 2022
On his previous visit, he was the main protagonist as he was the leader who the team was thrown on his back to overcome a deficit of two goals achieved by the rayistas in just 14 minutes: Miku and Embarba brought joy to the red-and-red stands, but the Welshman, with two goals, the second just ten minutes from the end of the match, gave the Madridistas all three points… In what will be the season of his farewell, Bale is not going to Vallecas either…
