List of international goals scored by Gareth Bale

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Bale playing for Wales in 2016 AUT vs. WAL 2016-10-06 (157).jpg
Bale playing for Wales in 2016

Gareth Bale is a Welsh former professional footballer who represented the Wales national team as a forward from 2006 to 2022. He made his debut appearance for Wales on 27 May 2006, during a friendly against Trinidad and Tobago; at 16 years and 315 days old, Bale was the youngest ever player to represent the side at the time. [1] In October 2006, during his third appearance for Wales, he scored directly from a free kick in a 5–1 UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying defeat against Slovakia to become the nation's youngest ever goalscorer. [2] With 41 goals in 111 appearances, is the country's all-time top goalscorer. [3]

Contents

On 13 October 2015, Bale scored his nineteenth international goal in a 2–0 victory over Andorra during Wales' final qualifying match for UEFA Euro 2016, helping secure the nation's first appearance at a major international tournament since the 1958 FIFA World Cup. [4] Bale was Wales' top scorer in their successful qualifying campaign, finishing with a tally of seven goals. [5] During the final tournament in France, Bale scored in all three group matches at the tournament, against Slovakia, Russia, and England, as Wales topped their group and would go on to reach the semi-finals. [6] Bale's opener from a free kick in his side's first group game against Slovakia was the first goal at a major international tournament by a Welsh player since Terry Medwin scored against Hungary in 1958. [7] Bale became the Welsh national team's all-time top goalscorer on 22 March 2018, after scoring a hat-trick in a friendly against China at the China Cup. [8] Bale entered the match on 26 goals, two short of fellow countryman Ian Rush's record tally, having not scored an international goal in eighteen months since November 2016. [9] He scored twice in the first half of the game to equal Rush's record, before surpassing it with his third goal in the second half. He also became the first Welsh player to score a hat-trick at international level since Robert Earnshaw in 2004. [10] He scored his second hat-trick in a fixture in September 2021, during a 3–2 victory over Belarus. [11]

Bale played for Wales in the qualifying campaigns of every FIFA World Cup and European Championship from UEFA Euro 2008 to the 2022 World Cup, as well as in the finals of Euro 2016, where the side reached the last four before being knocked out by eventual champions Portugal. [12] He also featured in the finals of Euro 2020, where Wales reached the round of 16, but Bale failed to score a goal. [13] At the 2022 World Cup, he scored Wales' only goal of the tournament against the United States. [14] Bale scored more times in qualifying matches than in any other format with 28 goals (14 in Euro qualifiers and 14 in World Cup qualifiers). His other goals included six in friendly matches (including three in the China Cup), three in the European Championship finals, three in the UEFA Nations League and one in the World Cup finals. [6] He scored more times against China, Belarus, Andorra and Austria than any other opponent, with three goals each against the sides. [6]

Goals

Wales' score listed first, score column indicates score after each Bale goal. [6] [15]
International goals by date, venue, cap, opponent, score, result and competition
No.DateVenueCapOpponentScoreResultCompetitionRef.
17 October 2006 Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales3Flag of Slovakia.svg  Slovakia 1–21–5 UEFA Euro 2008 qualification [16]
228 March 2007Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales6Flag of San Marino.svg  San Marino 2–03–0 [17]
312 October 2010 St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland27Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg  Switzerland 1–11–4 UEFA Euro 2012 qualification [18]
47 October 2011 Liberty Stadium, Swansea, Wales312–02–0UEFA Euro 2012 qualification [19]
511 October 2011 Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria32Flag of Bulgaria.svg  Bulgaria 1–01–0UEFA Euro 2012 qualification [20]
612 November 2011 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales33Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 1–04–1 Friendly [21]
711 September 2012 Karađorđe Stadium, Novi Sad, Serbia36Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia 1–21–6 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification [22]
812 October 2012Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales37Flag of Scotland.svg  Scotland 1–12–12014 FIFA World Cup qualification [23]
92–1
106 February 2013Liberty Stadium, Swansea, Wales39Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 1–02–1Friendly [24]
1126 March 2013Liberty Stadium, Swansea, Wales41Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia 1–01–22014 FIFA World Cup qualification [25]
125 March 2014Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales44Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland 3–13–1Friendly [26]
139 September 2014 Estadi Nacional, Andorra la Vella, Andorra45Flag of Andorra.svg  Andorra 1–12–1 UEFA Euro 2016 qualification [27]
142–1
1528 March 2015 Sammy Ofer Stadium, Haifa, Israel49Flag of Israel.svg  Israel 2–03–0UEFA Euro 2016 qualification [28]
163–0
1712 June 2015Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales50Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium 1–01–0UEFA Euro 2016 qualification [29]
183 September 2015 GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus51Flag of Cyprus.svg  Cyprus 1–01–0UEFA Euro 2016 qualification [30]
1913 October 2015Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales54Flag of Andorra.svg  Andorra 2–02–0UEFA Euro 2016 qualification [31]
2011 June 2016 Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France56Flag of Slovakia.svg  Slovakia 1–02–1 UEFA Euro 2016 [32]
2116 June 2016 Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens, France57Flag of England.svg  England 1–01–2UEFA Euro 2016 [33]
2220 June 2016 Stadium Municipal, Toulouse, France58Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 3–03–0UEFA Euro 2016 [34]
235 September 2016Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales62Flag of Moldova.svg  Moldova 3–04–0 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification [35]
244–0
259 October 2016Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales64Flag of Georgia.svg  Georgia 1–01–12018 FIFA World Cup qualification [36]
2612 November 2016Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales65Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia 1–01–12018 FIFA World Cup qualification [37]
2722 March 2018 Guangxi Sports Center, Nanning, China69Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1–06–0 2018 China Cup [8]
282–0
296–0
306 September 2018Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales71Flag of Ireland.svg  Republic of Ireland 2–04–1 2018–19 UEFA Nations League B [38]
3116 November 2018Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales73Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 1–21–22018–19 UEFA Nations League B [39]
326 September 2019Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales78Flag of Azerbaijan.svg  Azerbaijan 2–12–1 UEFA Euro 2020 qualification [40]
3313 October 2019Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales81Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia 1–11–1UEFA Euro 2020 qualification [41]
345 September 2021 Central Stadium, Kazan, Russia98Flag of Belarus.svg  Belarus 1–03–2 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification [11]
352–2
363–2
3724 March 2022Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales101Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 1–02–1 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification [42]
382–0
39
[nb 1]
5 June 2022Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales103Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 1–01–02022 FIFA World Cup qualification [46]
4014 June 2022 De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands106Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 2–22–3 2022–23 UEFA Nations League A [47]
4121 November 2022 Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar109Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1–11–1 2022 FIFA World Cup [48]

Hat-tricks

No.OpponentGoalsScoreVenueCompetitionDate
1Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 3 – (1–0', 2–0', 6–0')6–0 Guangxi Sports Center, Nanning, China 2018 China Cup 22 March 2018
2Flag of Belarus.svg  Belarus 3 – (1–0', 2–2', 3–2')3–2 Central Stadium, Kazan, Russia 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification 5 September 2021

Statistics

See also

Notes

  1. UEFA marked this as an own goal by Andriy Yarmolenko, but FIFA technical experts awarded the goal to Bale. [43] [44] [45]

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