Watch Gareth Bale’s OUTRAGEOUS dipping free-kick and wild celebration as he gives Wales huge World Cup play-off lead
REAL MADRID star Gareth Bale scored an absolute screamer to give Wales the lead against Austria at Cardiff City Stadium.
Bale rolled back the years and gave the Dragons the lead in their World Cup qualifying play-off with a sensational strike – the kind we haven’t seen in years.
In fact, that was the Welshman’s first free-kick goal for his national team since Euro 2016 against England.
Rob Page’s men earned a free-kick down the right flank from a tight angle and the star forward decided to go for broke.
The 32-year-old fired an unstoppable left-footed strike which smashed Heinz Lindner’s top left corner in the 25th minute.
That led to a passionate celebration from the ex-Tottenham star who went to share that amazing moment with a gleeful Cardiff crowd.
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Bale has been struggling at Real with another injury-laden season and has only managed 77 minutes of club football since November, when he won his 100th cap.
The winger received immense criticism in Spain after his late withdrawal from Sunday’s El Clasico against Barcelona but was declared fit for Wales.
The Spurs great was slammed by the press as one paper dubbed his sudden return to fitness as “The Miracle of Wales” while another had the headline, “It doesn’t hurt any more”.
But he refused to be drawn on the exact nature of his injury after going on international duty.
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Bale said: “I don’t need to clarify. I don’t need to tell anyone what was up — I don’t need to give anyone anything to use against me.
“But everything is fine now, I have no issues.
“It’s normal to have niggles now and again but I’ve been training for the last two months.”