Gareth Bale makes hay with hat-trick as Wales star ends shocking goal drought

The
€100million
man
scored
for
the
first
time
in
his
past
17
internationals
to
give
Wales
a
fifth-minute
lead
from
the
penalty
spot,
the
first
of
two
spot-kicks
he
fired
home
in
Kazan.

Captain
Bale
then
hit
a
stoppage-time
winner
past
Sergey
Chernik
to
give
Wales
a
3-2
success
from
their
trip
to
Russia,
with
the
game
moved
to
the
neutral
location
as
Wales
could
not
enter
Belarus
due
to
sanctions
imposed
against
that
country’s
government.

The
tussle
did
not
go
entirely
to
plan
for
Wales,
who
conceded
twice
in
quick
succession
around
the
half-hour
mark,
with
just
92
seconds
between
Vitali
Lisakovich’s
equaliser
and
Pavel
Sedko
putting
the
nominal
home
team
ahead.
Those
had
been
the
first
two
shots
on
target
for
Belarus.

But
Bale
levelled
up
in
the
69th
minute
and
then
produced
fresh
heroics
for
his
country
in
the
dying
moments.
He
had
seven
goal
attempts
in
total,
and
the
three
he
put
on
target
paid
handsome
dividends
for
Wales’ all-time
record
goalscorer.

He
described
the
victory
as
“massive”
and
said:
“We
know
these
kinds
of
games
are
probably
the
hardest
because
you
are
expected
to
win
and
other
teams
make
it
difficult.

“To
get
that
kind
of
last-minute
goal
and
three
points
will
hopefully
keep
our
momentum
going
and
hopefully
we
can
keep
that
into
the
next
game.”

Wales
had
missed
their
previous
three
penalties,
including
Bale’s
failure
at
Euro
2020
against
Turkey,
and
he
admitted
that
big-stage
blunder
was
in
his
thinking
when
he
won
the
early
spot-kick
chance.

“Of
course,
you
have
it
in
the
back
of
my
mind,” Bale
told
Sky
Sports.
“Missed
penalties
are
a
thing
in
football,
it
happens
and
it’s
about
how
you
bounce
back.
It
was
great
to
score
two
tonight,
because
they
were
important
goals.

“[The
winner]
was
kind
of
last-gasp.
Everything
was
in
the
box
and
bouncing
around,
and
I
tried
to
hook
it
in,
and
as
soon
as
I
saw
it
go
just
past
his
fingers
and
roll
in,
I
was
ecstatic.
I
knew
it
was
right
at
the
last
few
seconds.”

Only
once
before
had
Bale
gone
longer
without
scoring
for
his
country
–
a
run
of
20
games
from
2007
to
2010,
in
the
infancy
of
his
Wales
career.

3
–
Gareth
Bale
is
the
first
Wales
player
to
score
a
hat-trick
for
the
national
side
since
Bale
himself
against
China
in
March
2018.
Hero.

—
OptaJoe
(@OptaJoe)

September
5,
2021

Kazan
is
over
400
miles
east
of
Moscow,
and
Bale
was
unimpressed
by
Wales
being
told
to
play
there
by
UEFA.

“Obviously
everything
hasn’t
really
gone
for
us
in
terms
of
travelling
to
Russia,” said
Bale.
“It’s
not
exactly
ideal
for
UEFA
or
FIFA
to
put
us
here,
but
it
is
what
it
is
and
we’ve
had
to
use
that
as
extra
motivation.
Thankfully,
we
got
the
three
points
and
we
can
get
out
of
here.”