Football
Mark Lomas 10y

Bale delighted to win in hometown

CARDIFF, Wales -- Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale was delighted to crown his return to Cardiff with a UEFA Super Cup winner's medal.

Bale, 25, grew up in the Welsh capital and while he has played international friendlies in his hometown, the clash with Sevilla was his first club game at the Cardiff City Stadium.

- Lomas: Three Points on UEFA Super Cup
- Train: Ronaldo raises Real's curtain in style
- Ronaldo: Real are 'justified winners'
- Ancelotti calls Toni Kroos 'perfect'

The former Tottenham star created Madrid's opening goal in the 2-0 victory, with Cristiano Ronaldo finishing from his pinpoint cross in the first half before adding a second after the interval.

And Bale told reporters after the game that winning another trophy was made sweeter because it was in South Wales.

"For me personally it was obviously a great night to be in my hometown and to win the trophy was the most important thing but to win it in Cardiff has made it a perfect evening," Bale said.

"All my family and friends were here -- I've had a lot of requests for tickets. But the most important thing for me and the whole team was that we've won the trophy."

On his relationship with Ronaldo, Bale said: "We've shown last season that we both created goals for each other, scored a lot of goals and we're enjoying playing together. Obviously we can still improve together and create a good partnership."

It was Bale's third major trophy with Madrid, having scored in the finals of the Copa del Rey and Champions League as Los Blancos won both competitions last season.

Madrid have gone about consolidating their success by bringing in new faces, with Bale convinced the only getting big-money arrivals of James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos can only help the team improve.

He said: "It's always good to have options -- it makes competition more fierce and then performances will go up. ... We know how good we can be, we know how good we are. We need to keep working hard on the training pitch and hopefully we can win all our games."

^ Back to Top ^