Bale hoping Roma win the first of many

The defending European champions have done fairly well in the Champions League this season, apart from a loss to CSKA Moscow, but have particularly struggled in the league.

However, they managed to find a posisitive in such a bad season by booking their place in the knockout stages of European football's top club competition with a win over Roma, and Bale hopes the team will be able to build on the result.

"We know obviously the start of the season was not exactly as we would like. We need to keep working hard together as a team to get the performances and get the results... and get back up the table in the league." the Welshman said after the game, in which he scored the first goal.

"It has been a bit of a turbulent start to the season but we have to keep fighting every game no matter what position we are in. That is football, it can be frustrating sometimes when things are not quite coming off.

"But I know from experience you just have to keep working hard, together as a team, and we did that today."