Gareth Bale applauds refereeing decisions
Gareth Bale praised the officials at White Hart Lane after Tottenham Hotspur were awarded three penalties in their Champions League match against FC Twente.
Raphael Van der Vaart had one of the penalties saved before he scored to give Spurs the lead. In a fascinating match Spurs ran out 4-1 winners, although Van der Vaart was in trouble again after he was sent off.
Roman Pavlyuchenko scored the other two penalties and Bale scored Spurs fourth. Nacer Chadli scored the only goal for Twente.
FC Twente were furious with the number of penalties given but Bale believed that the referee was correct.
“Obviously the officials were there because they are in a better position to make the call and I think it’s worked well tonight and it’s paid off for us,” Bale told
Sky Sports. “If they are penalties they should be given and I think all of them were tonight so fair play to the referee, he made the right call.”
The home side had to defend in numbers when they were reduced to 10 men and Bale paid tribute to his side’s team spirit.
“I think we went 2-0 up and they came straight back at us and going down to 10 men wasn’t an ideal situation for us,” he said. “We showed all our character and we pulled together and took it to them.”
However, the Welshman played down his team’s chances, despite Spurs strong showing in their first Champions League.
“I think we just take each game as it comes, obviously it's great to get a win in the Champions League,” he added. Hopefully we can take that into Saturday [against Aston Villa] and get another three points.”
Spurs will face Rafa Benitez and Inter Milan in the next round of the competition. The two sides are both level on four points at the top of the group.
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