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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Ian Mitchelmore

Real Madrid and Wales star Gareth Bale's response after Spanish football expert's claim he is 'angry and confused'

Gareth Bale says he has nothing to clear his mind about ahead of Wales' crucial Euro 2020 qualifier against Slovakia despite reports claiming otherwise.

Spanish football expert Guillem Balague recently claimed that Bale was ready to quit Real Madrid after becoming frustrated over his frosty relationship with Zinedine Zidane.

Bale was frozen out by the Spanish giants over the summer and was on the brink of a move to Chinese Super League outfit Jiangsu Suning ahead of the 2019/20 campaign, although the switch collapsed at the last minute.

The Welshman later pulled out of his side's Audi Cup campaign, reportedly as he was not in the right frame of mind.

He has since been re-introduced into the first-team fold in Spain, featuring seven times in all competitions for Los Blancos this season, with his only two goals coming against Villarreal, a game in which Bale was also sent off.

However, after he was recently left out of the Champions League clash with Belgian outfit Club Brugge, Balague claimed Bale was left "angry" and confused" over his ommission.

But Bale says he has nothing to be frustrated about, adding that he plans to do the business with Wales in their qualifying matches against Slovakia and Croatia during the international break.

"I think you play with a lot of emotion," he said.

"Obviously anger comes into it, but I'm just trying to play football and enjoy it as much as I can and give my best whether I'm here or at Real Madrid.

"Whenever I go on to the pitch I try and give 100% as much as I can to help the team and I'll continue to do that.

"I haven't got anything to clear my mind about. I love meeting up with Wales, everybody knows that. It's something that I've always loved doing. We have a task in hand to try and qualify for the Euros.

"It's a massive game. We're looking forward to it, we want to win the game, get the three points and put ourselves right back in the mix."

Bale - the only Wales player to feature in all four of his country's matches against Slovakia - will hope to add to his tally of two goals against Pavel Hapal's side when the pair meet in Trnava on Thursday night.

The 30-year-old netted his first international goal against the Slovaks in 2006 and also bagged in the opener in the 2-1 win against the side at Euro 2016.

"I've scored against Slovakia in the past, but it doesn't really affect what will happen in the future," he added.

"Come tomorrow [Thursday] I don't care who scores, as long as we score and win the match. It's about the team tomorrow, we need to stick to the game plan and if we do we'll have a good chance of winning."

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