Bale on 200 career goals, LASK and the derby
Fri 04 December 2020, 12:25|
Tottenham Hotspur
Gareth Bale put personal milestones on the back burner as he reflected on our 3-3 draw against LASK in Austria on Thursday night.
The point on a freezing night in Linz was enough to secure our progress into the knockout phase of the UEFA Europa League. So, job done, and Gareth’s penalty in the first half was the 200th goal of his career for club and country - 57 of those now in a Spurs shirt.
“I wasn’t aware of it,” said Gareth, when told of his double century. “Obviously it’s nice to get 200 goals in my career, another milestone that I’ll look back on in the future. At the moment, it was nice to get the goal, we would have liked to have won, it wasn’t to be, and we now go again for the next game.”
Gareth conceded we weren’t at our best in the first half. Having gone in at 1-1, we led twice in the second half, Heung-Min Son netted for 2-1 and after a late equaliser, Dele looked to have wrapped it up with another spot-kick two minutes from time, only for Mamoudou Karamoko to level again in the final seconds.
Nevertheless, the draw secured a top two finish in Group J, and we’ll now battle it out with Royal Antwerp for top spot in the final group game at home next Thursday (10 December, 8pm).
“It was a difficult game, we knew LASK were a good team and they made it difficult for us,” added Gareth. “We didn’t play to the levels we wanted in the first half, but the second half was a lot better, we had more control of the game and we were unlucky not to win in the end.”
Gareth has started all five of our group matches so far. “The competition has given me a chance to get fit and to get game time,” he said. “The Premier League is a higher demand in terms of physicality, so it’s been important for that, and important for the Club.
“The objective is to win it. Every footballer will tell you going into a competition at a big club, you want to win every competition you go into. Our aim is to win it, and we’ll give it our best shot.”
Now for Arsenal on Sunday. “Everyone wants to play in the big games, especially the derby, we’re in good form and we’re looking forward to it,” he said.
