When Bale exploded against the world at the Ciutat de Valencia Stadium

More than two years have passed since Gareth Bale last visited the Ciutat de Valencia, two years since one of the Welsh international striker's most difficult games. 

On 24th February 2019, Real Madrid visited Levante on matchday 25 of La Liga. Everything was going well, until the last quarter of an hour of the match when Iglesias Villanueva awarded a penalty to 'Los Blancos', the second of the match after Karim Benzema had scored.

That made the fans in the 'granota' stadium erupt, and they gave a resounding whistle to the referee and to Bale himself, who had come on just a few minutes earlier and was in charge of taking the penalty. From the spot, the Welshman made no mistake and gave his team the winning goal to make it 1-2. 

But as soon as the penalty was scored, Bale was angry with the world. Gareth celebrated the goal in his own way, angry, pissed off, dodging the congratulations of his teammates, even going so far as to rudely shake Lucas Vazquez off. 

Visibly angry, Bale walked back to the pitch until the end of the match. The Welshman's monumental anger went around the world, an image that showed the bad moment he was going through in 'Los Blancos' team, with all the rumours about his departure on the table. 

Since that 24th February 2019, Bale has not set foot in the Ciutat de Valencia again, until this Sunday 22nd August 2021. On the second matchday of La Liga, everything suggests that the Welshman will be part of Carlo Ancelotti's starting XI alongside Hazard and Benzema in attack.