Gareth Bale Was All Real Madrid Had Left, but He Was All They Needed

The ball had just been forced out of play on the right flank, where Gareth Bale was charging, pointing and yelling. Forty minutes were on the clock, and the Welshman was urging his team forward, Real Madrid 2-1 down to Rayo Vallecano at the Estadio de Vallecas.

This was it.

In Bale, there was an urgency that was palpable. His play was intense and his demeanour even more so, a sense of authority emanating from him. In the driving rain, he looked like a leader. But in a way, he looked alone, too.

In the background on the other side of the pitch, Karim Benzema was motionless, hunched over and holding his knee. The substitute board was being prepared, and suddenly this felt desperate.

For Real Madrid, both Luka Modric and Sergio Ramos were on the bench. Benzema was going to join them. Cristiano Ronaldo was absent. So was Dani Carvajal. So was Casemiro.

Where would the response come from? Where would Real Madrid turn? Had Zinedine Zidane brought his boots?

This wasn't what they'd planned for, but here they were. Against a spirited Rayo outfit fighting for survival and unexpectedly owning momentum, Madrid were scrapping, battling.

In defence, Danilo and Pepe had their hands full, and Raphael Varane looked uncomfortable. Elsewhere, Mateo Kovacic was watching the game go by him, Jese was doing the same and Toni Kroos without his usual companions looked burdened.

This wasn't the Madrid seen against Wolfsburg or Sevilla, against Barcelona or Getafe. Instead, this was a Madrid shorn of nearly everything that makes them what they are, one that looked unsure, lacking presence and purpose.

All they had: Gareth Bale.

And it turns out he's all they needed.

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Only minutes earlier, Bale had breathed life into Madrid's quest with an exquisite header to halve Rayo's lead, and now he was at the heart of everything.

Pulling the ball down from the sky with his left boot, the Welshman beat two men on the edge of the hosts' box and flashed a rasping shot just wide, goalkeeper Juan Carlos beaten.

It was his third shot of the game: One had found the net, one had crashed off the post and the other had served as a warning that more were coming.

Suddenly, this was Bale's team, and everyone knew it.

When the play resumed after half-time, everything ran through the Welshman, his team-mates looking for him at every opportunity as the game grew tense and the stakes heightened. As it unfolded, further questions arose: How would he respond to the responsibility? Could he do this alone? Could he throw on the cape?

The answers were emphatic. Madrid were growing into the game when Lucas Vazquez got the equaliser, and then Bale took over: A soaring, flick-on header over two men released Jese, who should have scored. A storming run and cross put the ball on a plate for Vazquez, who should have scored as well. Minutes later, the same again.

He was dominating, but it was still 2-2. Time was running out. It was time to do it himself—so he did.

Latching onto a stray back pass, the Welshman charged through the centre of the pitch, blasting his shot past Carlos and into the bottom corner. 3-2. Comeback complete.

"A thunderbolt called Bale," wrote Marca.

"Madrid saved thanks to Bale," wrote AS.

All season, Bale has radiated a new-found sense of conviction.

Looking bold, empowered, leading rather than deferring, he's shrugged off the timidness or apprehension that blighted his second season at Madrid, emerging as a genuine force and showing that, like it was on Saturday in Vallecas, this team might soon be his.

Indeed, these were Bale's 17th and 18th league goals of the season in just his 19th start, but it was the manner of the performance that was most striking. The presence. The superiority. The response to going behind and the need for it to be him.

In the second half, no one was left in any doubt over who was boss.

"Being the hero isn't important, winning and keeping up the fight for La Liga is," the Welshman told reporters afterwards.

It was a characteristically humble line, but he was wrong: Being the hero was important. Without Ronaldo, without Benzema, without Ramos, without Modric for the bulk of the game, Madrid needed a reference point, a driving force.

And in Bale, they got one.

"We needed Bale to step up, and he did so superbly," said Zidane. "He created chances and physically he gets stronger as the game goes on. He was great."

It was a significant line from Zidane, as it touched on a theme of recent weeks. As games have entered their dying stages, Bale has gotten stronger. In the recent Clasico, he seemed to get faster and more powerful as the contest went on, eventually running all over Barcelona like an avalanche.

And here it was the same. It speaks of his fitness and his freshness, but it also feels as though it goes beyond that.

In Bale, there now appears to be a belief, a relentless streak, a strength of will. As others fade, he keeps going. In the absence of others, he keeps going.

On Saturday, Bale was all Real Madrid had left.

And he was all they needed.

Follow @TimDCollins