Real Madrid beat Arsenal in a penalty shootout after Gareth Bale had made a goalscoring return to the Spanish side in a thrilling 2-2 draw at the International Champions Cup on Tuesday.
Bale is thought to be close to be leaving Real after seeing his relationship with Zinedine Zidane deteriorate. But after his absence from the game against Bayern Munich on Sunday, the French manager brought the winger on from the bench
“He put in a good performance and I’m pleased for him,” said Zidane. “Nothing has changed, you know the situation.
“He played today, he wanted to and he did a good job. He wanted to be with us today; he trained normally and played the match. I make the decisions and he played one half. We’ll have to see what happens. He’s still here with us at this stage.”
Bale’s future could be affected by a serious injury suffered during the match by team-mate Marco Asensio. The Spanish winger left the pitch on a stretcher, with Real later confirming in a statement that he had “been diagnosed with a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament and the external meniscus of his left knee. The player will be surgically operated on in the next few days.” Asensio’s injury means he is expected to miss the majority of the upcoming season.
Arsenal named a strong side captained by Mesut Ozil while Real had Bale on the bench and Eden Hazard, wearing the number 50 shirt, starting alongside fellow new signing Luka Jovic in attack.
The match, however, looked to be over as a contest after Real defender Nacho was sent off for two yellow cards in a frantic early spell in the United States capital.
The Spain international was shown one yellow card for a foul on Sead Kolasinac and another after blocking Alexandre Lacazette’s shot with his hand on the goal line.
Lacazette stepped up to sneak the 10th minute penalty home, before the Frenchman delightfully flicked the ball through for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to double the lead 14 minutes later.
The referee evened things up, however, when he again brandished two yellow cards in quick succession to send Arsenal’s Sokratis Papastathopoulos from the field in the 40th minute.
Bale and Asensio scored inside three second-half minutes to level up the scores and take the game to penalties.
Arsenal edged in front in the shootout when Reiss Nelson scored his spot kick and Bale missed his, but misses from Granit Xhaka, Nacho Monreal and Robbie Burton proved costly and Real ran out 3-2 winners.