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#3 Gareth Bale destroys Maicon and arrives on the world stage
Gareth Bale had been outstanding throughout 2009/10, but it was the pair of games that Tottenham played against Inter Milan – then-holders of the Champions League - in the 2010/11 Champions League group stage that really announced his arrival on the world stage as one of the hottest properties in European football. Over the course of two games – Spurs won one and lost the other – Bale destroyed the Brazilian right-back Maicon – then recognised as the best full-back in the world – and made him look like an amateur.
The first game actually saw Spurs lose 4-3 at the San Siro, but in fact it could’ve been seen as a moral victory for the Lilywhites, who got off to a disastrous start – Inter went 3-0 up in the first fifteen minutes of the game and to make matters worse, Spurs lost their keeper Gomes to a red card as he gave away the penalty that Inter scored their second goal from. By halftime, the English side were 4-0 down and Inter’s lead looked insurmountable. That was until Bale took over the second half single-handedly, and scored a hat-trick to almost salvage the game – including an incredible first goal that saw him run almost the entire length of the pitch.
The return tie at White Hart Lane was even better for Bale. It was this game that saw the flying Welshman really destroy Maicon – an Italian media outlet said he “went past him in a million different ways, reducing him to asphalt” – as he set up goals for Rafael Van Der Vaart, Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko, leading Spurs to a 3-1 win. After this game Bale became wanted by all of Europe’s biggest sides and although he eventually moved to Real Madrid, for a moment it was undisputable that Tottenham was home to one of the greatest players in the world – something for Spurs fans to celebrate indeed.
