How Twitter reacted to Gareth Bale’s Real Madrid no-show
Real Madrid fans are a famously fickle bunch but it would appear that much of social media was in agreement with Los Blancos supporters about one thing after their 2-1 defeat to Juventus – Gareth Bale had a night to forget.
The Champions League is a trophy that is notoriously difficult to defend and while the Spanish giants did manage to get a precious away goal, they still have plenty to do going into the return leg of their semi-final against the Old Lady of Turin.
Whether Bale starts next week remains to be seen, however, with the Welsh wonder kicking up quite the storm on social media after his ghost-like performance.
Here are some of the highlights from Twitter.
Let’s start with some of the numbers behind Bale’s performance which were, as you might have guessed, pretty terrible.
Gareth Bale’s game by numbers vs. Juventus: 0 shots 0 chances created 0 successful crosses 94% pass accuracy pic.twitter.com/vO01ZK7pZT
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) May 5, 2015
Meanwhile, for those of us unable to comprehend the most basic of maths, there was also a rather handy heat map available, which showed us, well, I’m not really sure what it showed us.
Bale could be in line for further criticism after another dismal performance | @nicholasgodden https://t.co/F1qp6sZypP pic.twitter.com/D3pt0c8JPW — MailOnline Sport (@MailSport) May 5, 2015
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Bale also got the brunt from ITV’s Manchester United mouthpiece, Roy Keane who won the award for bitchiest put-down of the night – you go girl!
Roy Keane said Real Madrid played with 10 men against Juventus as Gareth Bale gave nothing https://t.co/68Y6x15QJR https://t.co/d6dU89wpQz
— 101 Great Goals (@101greatgoals) May 5, 2015
Mind you, Bale really didn’t have that many touches of the ball – as Sky Sports News showed us.
Gareth Bale had the fewest touches of any starting Real Madrid player last night #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/ePB8AqQmOD — Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) May 6, 2015
And Roy wasn’t the only one to stick the boot in, as it were…
Shots fired from the Spanish media to Gareth Bale! #JuveReal #BaleFail pic.twitter.com/HfdJ9n8znM
— Top Corner (@HITCtopcorner) May 5, 2015
Thankfully there were plenty of people on hand to make light of the situation. This inspired “Where’s Wally?” style tweet was a highlight.
Where’s Bale? pic.twitter.com/ISKyvE4NXs — ☠ (@Evaulio) May 5, 2015
While Bleacher Report rolled out the obligatory Simpsons reference.
Has anyone seen Gareth Bale? pic.twitter.com/kqwRZPiIpo
— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) May 5, 2015
Others seemed more concerned about how the Welsh Wonder would be getting home…
Bale’s ride home is waiting for him. pic.twitter.com/7OywSbc0nL — Hayley B (@Hayles_101) May 5, 2015
And whether he was covered, so to speak…
I hope Bale has renewed his car insurance. That’s all I’m saying.
— Keith Russell (@Keith_Russell) May 5, 2015
The last word goes to Ladbrokes though, with this fine Tweet on the night.
MISSING: Gareth Bale, last spotted scoring in the Champions League Final, 24th May 2014. #JuveReal pic.twitter.com/BxtSW82D4I — Ladbrokes (@Ladbrokes) May 5, 2015
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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