Bale’s brilliant hat-trick – From the European archives

To commemorate the return of The UEFA Champions League tonight, Ross Jones looks back at one of the classic games from the tournament. It is exactly ten years to the day since the thriller at the San Siro between Inter Milan and Tottenham Hotspur, a match in which a certain Welshman propelled himself onto the European Stage.

Inter Milan 4-3 Tottenham Hotspur

UEFA Champions League: Group A

Referee: Damir Skomina

Stadium: Guiseppe Meazza

Attendance: 70,520

Before we kick-off it’s best we look at the two teams. The home side were the reigning European Champions and had just come off a historic treble the season before. But it had been all change for the Nerazurri that summer, manager Jose Mourinho who guided them to their second European Cup had left to manage Real Madrid. Rafa Benitez took over from the Portuguese, but he had endured a mixed start. Inter won four of their opening seven Serie A games.

Meanwhile Tottenham Hotspur were managed by Harry Redknapp, who had led them to the Champions League for the very first time. Spurs had made an unbetween start to their group drawing 2-2 away at Werder Bremen, which was followed by a 4-1 victory against Dutch champions, FC Twente.

Inter were without their Argentinian hitman Diego Milito, who scored both goals in the 2010 Final against Bayern  Munich, but nonetheless they fielded an strong XI which included Julio Cesar, veteran captain Javier Zanetti, Wesley Sneijder, a 18-year-old Philippe Coutinho as well as ex Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o.

The Tottenham side for their Group A fixture saw Heurelho Gomes in goal, Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Alan Hutton as the full-backs, Luka Modric and Jermaine Jenas in midfield, the tall-target man of Peter Crouch upfront as well as Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale as the two wingers.

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Undoubtedly this was Spurs’ biggest and toughest test so far, and they got off to the worst possible start. In the first minute, Coutinho drove the ball forward prompting Hutton to come close the Brazilian down. This saw the full-back dragged out of his position which left a gap for Inter to exploit.

Coutinho played it to Eto’o who then released a free-Zanetti to curl the ball into the top corner to give the hosts the lead. Zanetti made history with that goal, the 37-year-old legendary Inter skipper became the oldest goalscorer in Champions League history.

Just five minutes later and Benitez’s men were in again, Wesley Sneijder’s well-weighted through ball put the pacey Jonathan Biabany in one-on-one with Gomes. The goalkeeper rushed out to meet him, but he brought down the Frenchman and conceded a penalty in the process. The referee Damir Skimona deemed it a clear goalscoring opportunity and gave Gomes a red card.

Redknapp brought on former Chelsea ‘keeper Carlo Cudicini to replace Gomes, a move which saw Luka Modric sacrificed and brought off. Eto’o faced up to the backup ‘keeper, and despite a stuttered run up, rifled the spotkick into the top left corner to double Inter’s advantage.

In the 15th minute it was 3-0. Inter were really turning on the style in the first quarter of an hour, something Tottenham were unable to contain. Maicon knocked it to Dejan Stankovic, who neatly flicked it to Eto’o. The forward immediately played it back to the midfielder, who went on to nutmeg Sebastien Bassong and roll it in for a third.

Coutinho was causing real problems during the opening 45 minutes. With ten minutes left before the interval, he set Eto’o in on goal once more. Despite a touch from Cudicini, he was able to get his second of the game and the European Champions’ fourth of the night.

It was ruthless from the Nerazurri, they completely carved Spurs open in the first 45. With the visitors down to ten men too, it looked like it was going to be a very long night for the visitors.

But in a way Spurs proved everyone wrong in the second-half. And who was that down to? Step forward Gareth Bale.

In the 52nd minute Peter Crouch played it to the Welshman who picked it up from around 60 yards. Both Maicon and Zanetti tried to tackle the winger, but his pace proved too hot to handle for the defensive pair. Bale skipped past the duo and drove it to the edge of the area. He fired a shot on his stronger left foot and found the corner of the net.

It looked like that would just be a mere consolation for Redknapp’s men, but in the last minute of normal time Spurs and Bale were in again. He came up against Zanetti but once again overpowered Inter’s skipper. Bale reached the left-edge of the penalty area and went for goal again, once again finding the bottom right of Julio Cesar’s goal to pull the score back to 4-2.

Then in stoppage time Tottenham went on the attack again. Aaron Lennon led the charge forward and found Bale who was placed on the edge of the box. Once again Bale struck an effort on his dangerous left foot and blasted it into that same corner. Bale had claimed a sensational hat-trick and although they went racing back to the halfway line there was a small smile on the winger’s face.

“Oh this is incredible… three identical shots into the bottom corner, even they can’t believe it.” – Alan Parry, covering Inter vs Spurs for Sky Sports (20/10/2010)

It was a remarkable fightback from Tottenham, but unfortunately there would be no comeback. Spurs fell to a 4-3 defeat at the hands of the then Champions League holders.

Nonetheless it was still a classic and historic result for the North London, who got their own back in the reverse fixture at White Hart Lane, beating them 3-1.

Tottenham went on to top Group A, infact they went on to reach the quarter-finals of the competition, going out to their current manager Jose Mourinho and his Real Madrid team.

Unfortunately things didn’t work out for Inter under their new manager Benitez. They slumped in form with just three wins in their next 11 games which cost the Spaniard his job. Inter did qualify for the last 16 and went on to reach the quarter-finals like their Group A counterparts, however they were knocked out 7-3 on aggregate by that years surprise package Schalke.

But for Gareth Bale his solo performance against Inter gave him a platform to become one of Europe’s best players. In September 2013, the Welshman made a move to Real Madrid world-record £85 Million fee. He went on to win four Champions League medals before making a return to Spurs last month.

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