Gareth Bale has revealed what Jurgen Klopp told him after his stunning bicycle kick helped Real Madrid to victory in the Champions League final against Liverpool in 2018.
Bale, deployed from the bench in the 61st minute of the match with the scores level took only three minutes to get on the scoresheet and did so in remarkable fashion after beating Loris Karius with an acrobatic effort inside the penalty area.
The Welshman’s strike is regarded as one of the greatest-ever goals scored in a Champions League final, alongside Zinedine Zidane’s goal against Bayer Leverkusen in 2002, which came at the worst possible time for the Reds as they saw hopes of a sixth Champions League disappear in the capital of Ukraine.
Bale would go on to score a second goal in the closing stages of the match which saw Karius fumble his shot from range into the back of his own net, making himself the star of the final in under 30 minutes of action.
Reflecting on his wondergoal ahead of tonight’s Champions League final, Bale has now revealed what Klopp said directly to him after the full-time whistle. Speaking to TNT Sports, the ex-Tottenham Hotspur star said: “I think Jurgen Klopp said to me after the game ‘why did you do that’? or something along those lines after I scored the overhead kick.”
In the days following the final in Kyiv, it was reported Bale had spent 20 minutes inside the Liverpool dressing room to console beaten Reds players. Bale allegedly used the majority of his time talking to his former Southampton colleague Adam Lallana, who he played with at St Mary’s in 2006, and Wales international team-mate Ben Woodburn.
A conversation between Bale and Lallana did take place. However, this occurred in the drug testing room after both players had been called for a mandatory doping test by UEFA after the full-time whistle. The jet-heeled winger then saw Woodburn in the corridor afterwards, and spent a brief period conversing with his Welsh compatriot.