Gareth Bale hopes 'brave' Welsh performance will silence Real Madrid critics

GARETH BALE is confident he can turn around his Real Madrid fortunes after firing Wales into Euro 2016 dreamland.

Gareth BaleGETTY

Gareth Bale believes Wales win will put him on the right track in Madrid

Bale put his Bernabeu blues firmly to one side as his brace here helped Wales to a 3-0 win over Israel which moved them top of qualifying Group B, at least until Belgium face the same opposition in Jersualem tomorrow night.

Bale, 25, has been labelled lazy and selfish by the Madrid fans and press, but there was no sign of such faults in a whole-hearted performance.

He set up the opener as his knockdown allowed Aaron Ramsey to send a looping header into the net, before adding the second with a stunning free-kick.

With his teasing and tormenting of the Israeli defence leading to the sending off of Eytan Tibi, Bale then completed the scoring from Ramsey's pass on one of the more memorable nights in the recent history of Welsh football.

The £85million star will now return to the task of winning over the doubters in Spain, with Manchester United and Chelsea linked to offering him a route back to the Premier League in the summer.

But Bale is sure he will show he belongs in the famous white shirt of the European champions, and insists he does not need to prove his worth.

Gareth Bale Player Profile

I don't feel I need to prove anyone wrong or right, I just need to play my football

Gareth Bale

He said: "I don't need to answer the critics. I know, and everyone around me knows what I can do.

"I don't feel I need to prove anyone wrong or right, I just need to play my football.

"I love playing for Wales, it's a big honour and the most important thing is I focus on my football.

"I don't listen to anyone else or what they're saying. I am just enjoying my football with the boys."

Bale's brace brought up his 15th and 16th goals in a Wales shirt, taking him above the great John Charles and into joint-sixth place on the all-time scorers' list alongside Mark Hughes, Rob Earnshaw and Cliff Jones.

Given his age, there is every chance Bale will go on to surpass Ian Rush's record tally of 28 before he hangs up his boots.

But he preferred to focus on an overall performance he ranked as the best he had been a part of during his 49 caps.

Wales bring together Arab and Jewish communities

"That was definitely as good a performance as I can recall, especially away from home and especially under the pressure we were under," he said. "It's a statement."

It was the best performance of Chris Coleman's three-year spell at the helm, and the 44-year-old hailed the growing maturity of his side as they withstood a dirty tricks campaign from their hosts.

He said: "We arrived on Thursday and the journey from the airport is 45 minutes, it took us an hour and 55 minutes because our escort 'missed the turn off'.

"Then our bags arrived three or four hours later. So the games were starting to be played but we said just laugh and joke about it

"I remember as a player we used to get angry about it and you walked on the pitch and you wanted to tear someone in half. Someone gets sent off, you're 2-0 down after 20 minutes and it's all over.

"We just said, 'Keep calm, we've worked hard to get here, let's not do anything stupid, be brave with the ball' and we were all of that.

"I thought we could have won by more."

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