Gareth Bale: The night ‘unplayable’ Wales star tore Iceland apart
The fact Bale was there at all was a statement in itself. He had played in a fiery Madrid derby just three days earlier but, contrary to expectations of a fleeting cameo for this friendly, he started.
“It was labelled against Ryan Giggs that he was really good for Manchester United and in a Wales shirt he wouldn’t show up, miss friendlies and stuff, but you never got that with Gaz,” says Gabbidon.
“He was so driven and focused, not just for club but for country as well. At that point he was just running games on his own.”
Bale created the opening goal in the 12th minute with a free-kick from the right, curled perfectly into the path of James Collins to glance in.
“I think we were all queueing up for that cross. I was by James Collins ready to tap in if he didn’t,” says Vokes, who did not have to wait long for his chance.
Iceland equalised later in the first half as Williams turned Johann Berg Gudmundsson’s shot into his net but Wales were back in front after the break. Bale, of course, was at the heart of it.
Collecting the ball on the right, Bale feigned to turn inside, drove past Ari Skulason and accelerated before shooting with the outside of his left foot.
Only an outstanding block on the line by Kari Arnason denied Bale a superb solo goal, but the ball merely bounced up for Vokes to nod in.
“I just had to finish it from a yard out,” Vokes recalls with a smile. “I don’t know what you do as a defender. There was no stopping him at that point.”
As a centre-back, Gabbidon had a keener sense of what Iceland’s defenders had to face.
“I felt sorry for some of the teams that were coming up against him because he was just unplayable,” he says.
“He had that hunger about him as well. Sometimes you see players love playing for their clubs and, for their countries, they maybe play a gear down.
“But Gaz wasn’t like that. It was the same in a Welsh shirt, and there were quite a few games around that period, not just the Iceland one. We were almost like a one-man team.”
