Gareth Bale has admitted that he was angry with being on the bench for the Champions League final.

The Welshman was dropped to the bench by former Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane with Isco being preferred instead.

When asked how he felt after hearing he wasn't starting, he said:  "Angry. Quite angry, to be honest.


"Obviously, I felt I deserved to start the game. I'd been scoring goals. So yeah, I suppose it was hard to put the anger aside."

But when he did come on, he more than made his mark.

The Welshman was introduced in the 61st minute with the scores at 1-1 and he would go on to to notch a brace to win it for his side including a stunning overhead-kick.

But while Bale was the hero  for Real Madrid - the biggest talking point of the game was Loris Karius' mistakes for Liverpool.

The German goalkeeper gifted Karim Benzema Real Madrid's opener, before spilling a tame long range effort from Bale into his goal.

He was understandably in tears after the game as he knew he had cost Liverpool the victory.

Surprisingly, the first player on the pitch to console Karius was none other than Bale himself.

The Welshman has received a lot of credit for his moment of kindness and he has now reflected on the incident in an interview with the Daily Mail.

"I always try to put a bit of wobble on the ball," he said of the strike. "It's the same with free-kicks.

"You try to make it more difficult because if it doesn't go in the corner I always give them a problem if it's right down their throat."

When asked what he said to Karius, he revealed: "I just said, 'Keep your head up'. Mistakes happen. It's just unfortunate it's in a final.

"Yes, I suppose it's not quite as bad as it looked but I suppose he should save it."

Classy stuff from Bale. It's no doubt that Karius appreciated Bale's words in his moment of turmoil.

Bale also reflected on his stunning overhead-kick that gave Real Madrid a 2-1 advantage.

"I knew exactly where the ball went and you can see in the video my head turns to look exactly where the ball is going," He said.

"As soon as I hit it I knew it was good. The fall to the turf was light. 'No, you don't feel it!"

"It was quite a weird silence for a split second. Then everything erupted. I remember Marcelo and Toni Kroos running because I could see them coming and then everyone piled on.

And he also expressed his disbelief that it wasn't nominated for UEFA's goal of the season awards. "I don't know how it wasn't on that list!" he continued.

"I want to know who is on the panel because they want to be sacked."