List of international goals scored by Gareth Bale

A football player wearing a dark football kit with neon trim.
Bale playing for Wales in 2016

Gareth Bale is a Welsh former professional footballer who represented the Wales national team as a forward from 2006 to 2022. He made his debut appearance for Wales on 27 May 2006, during a friendly against Trinidad and Tobago; at 16 years and 315 days old, Bale was the youngest ever player to represent the side at the time.[1] In October 2006, during his third appearance for Wales, he scored directly from a free kick in a 5–1 UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying defeat against Slovakia to become the nation's youngest ever goalscorer.[2] With 41 goals in 111 appearances, is the country's all-time top goalscorer.[3]

On 13 October 2015, Bale scored his nineteenth international goal in a 2–0 victory over Andorra during Wales' final qualifying match for UEFA Euro 2016, helping secure the nation's first appearance at a major international tournament since the 1958 FIFA World Cup.[4] Bale was Wales' top scorer in their successful qualifying campaign, finishing with a tally of seven goals.[5] During the final tournament in France, Bale scored in all three group matches at the tournament, against Slovakia, Russia, and England, as Wales topped their group and would go on to reach the semi-finals.[6] Bale's opener from a free kick in his side's first group game against Slovakia was the first goal at a major international tournament by a Welsh player since Terry Medwin scored against Hungary in 1958.[7] Bale became the Welsh national team's all-time top goalscorer on 22 March 2018, after scoring a hat-trick in a friendly against China at the China Cup.[8] Bale entered the match on 26 goals, two short of fellow countryman Ian Rush's record tally, having not scored an international goal in eighteen months since November 2016.[9] He scored twice in the first half of the game to equal Rush's record, before surpassing it with his third goal in the second half. He also became the first Welsh player to score a hat-trick at international level since Robert Earnshaw in 2004.[10] He scored his second hat-trick in a fixture in September 2021, during a 3–2 victory over Belarus.[11]

Bale played for Wales in the qualifying campaigns of every FIFA World Cup and European Championship from UEFA Euro 2008 to the 2022 World Cup, as well as in the finals of Euro 2016, where the side reached the last four before being knocked out by eventual champions Portugal.[12] He also featured in the finals of Euro 2020, where Wales reached the round of 16, but Bale failed to score a goal.[13] At the 2022 World Cup, he scored Wales' only goal of the tournament against the United States.[14] Bale scored more times in qualifying matches than in any other format with 28 goals (14 in Euro qualifiers and 14 in World Cup qualifiers). His other goals included six in friendly matches (including three in the China Cup), three in the European Championship finals, three in the UEFA Nations League and one in the World Cup finals.[6] He scored more times against China, Belarus, Andorra and Austria than any other opponent, with three goals each against the sides.[6]

Goals

Wales' score listed first, score column indicates score after each Bale goal.[6][15]
International goals by date, venue, cap, opponent, score, result and competition
No. Date Venue Cap Opponent Score Result Competition Ref.
1 7 October 2006 Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 3  Slovakia 1–2 1–5 UEFA Euro 2008 qualification [16]
2 28 March 2007 Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 6  San Marino 2–0 3–0 [17]
3 12 October 2010 St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland 27   Switzerland 1–1 1–4 UEFA Euro 2012 qualification [18]
4 7 October 2011 Liberty Stadium, Swansea, Wales 31 2–0 2–0 UEFA Euro 2012 qualification [19]
5 11 October 2011 Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria 32  Bulgaria 1–0 1–0 UEFA Euro 2012 qualification [20]
6 12 November 2011 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 33  Norway 1–0 4–1 Friendly [21]
7 11 September 2012 Karađorđe Stadium, Novi Sad, Serbia 36  Serbia 1–2 1–6 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification [22]
8 12 October 2012 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 37  Scotland 1–1 2–1 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification [23]
9 2–1
10 6 February 2013 Liberty Stadium, Swansea, Wales 39  Austria 1–0 2–1 Friendly [24]
11 26 March 2013 Liberty Stadium, Swansea, Wales 41  Croatia 1–0 1–2 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification [25]
12 5 March 2014 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 44  Iceland 3–1 3–1 Friendly [26]
13 9 September 2014 Estadi Nacional, Andorra la Vella, Andorra 45  Andorra 1–1 2–1 UEFA Euro 2016 qualification [27]
14 2–1
15 28 March 2015 Sammy Ofer Stadium, Haifa, Israel 49  Israel 2–0 3–0 UEFA Euro 2016 qualification [28]
16 3–0
17 12 June 2015 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 50  Belgium 1–0 1–0 UEFA Euro 2016 qualification [29]
18 3 September 2015 GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus 51  Cyprus 1–0 1–0 UEFA Euro 2016 qualification [30]
19 13 October 2015 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 54  Andorra 2–0 2–0 UEFA Euro 2016 qualification [31]
20 11 June 2016 Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France 56  Slovakia 1–0 2–1 UEFA Euro 2016 [32]
21 16 June 2016 Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens, France 57  England 1–0 1–2 UEFA Euro 2016 [33]
22 20 June 2016 Stadium Municipal, Toulouse, France 58  Russia 3–0 3–0 UEFA Euro 2016 [34]
23 5 September 2016 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 62  Moldova 3–0 4–0 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification [35]
24 4–0
25 9 October 2016 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 64  Georgia 1–0 1–1 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification [36]
26 12 November 2016 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 65  Serbia 1–0 1–1 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification [37]
27 22 March 2018 Guangxi Sports Center, Nanning, China 69  China 1–0 6–0 2018 China Cup [8]
28 2–0
29 6–0
30 6 September 2018 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 71  Republic of Ireland 2–0 4–1 2018–19 UEFA Nations League B [38]
31 16 November 2018 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 73  Denmark 1–2 1–2 2018–19 UEFA Nations League B [39]
32 6 September 2019 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 78  Azerbaijan 2–1 2–1 UEFA Euro 2020 qualification [40]
33 13 October 2019 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 81  Croatia 1–1 1–1 UEFA Euro 2020 qualification [41]
34 5 September 2021 Central Stadium, Kazan, Russia 98  Belarus 1–0 3–2 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification [11]
35 2–2
36 3–2
37 24 March 2022 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 101  Austria 1–0 2–1 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification [42]
38 2–0
39
[nb 1] 		5 June 2022 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales 103  Ukraine 1–0 1–0 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification [46]
40 14 June 2022 De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands 106  Netherlands 2–2 2–3 2022–23 UEFA Nations League A [47]
41 21 November 2022 Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar 109  United States 1–1 1–1 2022 FIFA World Cup [48]

Hat-tricks

See also: List of Wales national football team hat-tricks
No. Opponent Goals Score Venue Competition Date
1  China 3 – (1–0', 2–0', 6–0') 6–0 Guangxi Sports Center, Nanning, China 2018 China Cup 22 March 2018
2  Belarus 3 – (1–0', 2–2', 3–2') 3–2 Central Stadium, Kazan, Russia 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification 5 September 2021

Statistics

See also

Notes

  1. ^ UEFA marked this as an own goal by Andriy Yarmolenko, but FIFA technical experts awarded the goal to Bale.[43][44][45]

References

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