By Chris Wright
Sadly, last night’s international fixtures passed me by, largely due to alcohol/house fire-based reasons, though whispers did reach my conch that Gareth Bale had been up to his old tricks again, going down like a sack of shit being slung from the back of a truck to win a late penalty…
Admittedly it looked like a shameless dive in real time, but on closer inspection it seems that Bale was knocked out of his stride when Shaun Maloney’s thigh nicked the Welshman’s leg as he sprinted into the area – a theory backed up by Maloney himself, who told The Sun:
“I think there might have been a little contact. I have not seen it again and it happened all so quickly I’m not entirely sure.
“I didn’t make a challenge as such, I think Bale just ran across me — but I don’t think he dived, that was my gut feeling. I think it was a coming together and one of his legs touched me. I was just trying to run back to try and help our left-back, I tried to do that all game.
“It was just unfortunate that this one time he got in front of me and ran across me it ended up being a penalty. I can only apologise to my team-mates.
“It’s one of these things that can happen in a match and I am very disappointed.”
Fair enough, and there was absolutely nothing contentious about Bale’s other major contribution to the night’s entertainment, slinging an excellent angled shot across the goal and into the top corner to win the match for Wales in the 89th minute…
Delicious.
(GIF: 101GG)