The chances are if you mention ‘Gareth Bale’ and ‘Liverpool’ together, only one game comes to mind - the 2018 Champions League final.
It was the Wales international who emerged from the bench in Kiev to restore Real Madrid’s lead against Jurgen Klopp’s Reds, producing one of the greatest European Cup final goals with a stunning overhead kick, before clinching the 3-1 win when Loris Karius infamously parried the forward’s tame long-range effort over his own line.
He’d win the Champions League again at Liverpool’s expense back in May, though this time he was left as an unused substitute as Vinicius Jr’s solitary strike sealed Madrid's fifth European crown.
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The 33-year-old confirmed his retirement from football on Monday, bringing an end to a career that has seen him establish himself as one of British football’s greatest ever players.
Bale would lock horns with Liverpool 12 times throughout his career, winning six of those matches and finding himself on the losing side just four times. Yet he’d only return three goals and three assists against the Reds, with all his contributions, minus the 2018 Champions League final brace, coming for Tottenham Hotspur in the 2012/13 season.
He would set up both Spurs goals for Jan Vertonghen at Anfield, as strikes from Luis Suarez, Stewart Downing, and Steven Gerrard saw Liverpool clinch a 3-2 win in March 2013. Missing out on the top four by just a point to Arsenal, it would prove to be a costly defeat in the final season of his first stint in North London prior to his move to Real Madrid.
Meanwhile, he set up Aaron Lennon’s opener at White Hart Lane before scoring a stunning free kick, inside the opening 16 minutes, just four months earlier as Tottenham recorded a 2-1 victory. But in the same game, the Welshman would complete an unwanted hat-trick.
As Liverpool pushed for a late comeback, it was Bale who provided their consolation goal - not that he knew anything about!
After Daniel Agger flicked on a late Jonjo Shelvey corner, Steven Gerrard directed a far-post header goalward only to see Lennon in its way on the line. However, the winger smashed his attempted clearance straight into the face of helpless Bale, who was sent flying to the ground as a result, as the ball rebounded back into the net for the most comical own goal (YouTube it, you won't regret it!)
"It was unlucky to concede a kind of sloppy goal," Bale laughed after the final whistle, no doubt just glad that it was Tottenham who clinched all three points regardless.
Having registered both a goal and an assist before his own goal, the forward equalled a Premier League record and joined an exclusive club by becoming only the third player to boast this unwanted hat-trick.
Bolton Wanderers’ striker Kevin Davies was the first player to record this rare treble in a 4-2 defeat away at Aston Villa in December 2008. He’d set up the opener for Johan Elmander, only to inadvertently give Villa the lead when heading Gareth Barry’s cross into his own net, before later scoring a header at the right end for a late consolation.
Meanwhile, Wayne Rooney would become the second player to record such a feat just a few weeks before Bale, as he recovered from scoring an early own goal to record a brace and an assist against Stoke City in a 4-2 win in October 2012.
The striker headed Charlie Adam’s free kick into his own net, before cancelling it out by heading home a Robin van Persie cross. Danny Welbeck would later score with a header of his own from a Rooney cross for United’s third goal, before the former Everton man scored a tap-in to complete the scoring.
It would take a decade for a fourth player to follow in Bale’s footsteps, with Aston Villa’s Jacob Ramsey the most recent man to join this club earlier this season.
Coming in Unai Emery’s first match in charge, the midfielder set up Leon Bailey for an early opener against Manchester United in November 2022, only to deflect a Luke Shaw strike into his own net to make it 2-1 to the hosts at Villa Park on the stroke of half-time. However, he restored the two-goal lead shortly after the restart as Villa ultimately ran out 3-1 winners.
Considering all the trophies and accomplishments throughout his career, in which he scored 226 goals for club and country, an own goal in a victory over 10 years ago is hardly going to keep Bale up at night as he enjoys retirement. But the record books show that it remains the day that he once scored for Liverpool Football Club. And while not as memorable or meaningful as his Kiev brace, it is still a goal that once you see it, it’s one you’ll never forget.
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