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Tottenham manager José Mourinho has said he is eager to see how Real Madrid react after Gareth Bale scored the winning goal 2-1 against Brighton on Sunday, his first goal since returning to the Premier League.
Bale left Spurs to join Real Madrid seven years ago, but returned to the north London club on a one-season loan in September.
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The Wales international won four Champions League and La Liga titles twice with Real, but opinion divided in Spain due to a perceived lack of commitment and a poor injury record.
“I’m happy for him because he deserved the goal. When he has five minutes, I’m going to Safari to look at the Madrid website to see what they say,” Mourinho said after the game.
“He knows that we care about him and we know that he cares about us, the team and the club, the Spurs. He is the perfect complement, he is very calm, very intelligent, he has good feelings.
“But before he had bad feelings because the training process was hard and his body was suffering a bit. But we gave him what he needed. We gave him all this attention as a whole: sports science, medicine, my assistants, the other players, so I’m very happy that he scored this winning goal. “
Spurs will face Ludogorets in the Europa League on Thursday before a Premier League clash against West Brom on Sunday.
Mourinho said that Bale would start against the Bulgarian team, but is not ready for the full 90 minutes in the Premier League yet.
“He still does not have 90 minutes of a Premier League match on his legs so we are using the Europa League to complement his training process.”
“We are using some Premier League matches when we decide to play him and of course the normal tendency for him will be to get better and better.”
“Will start again on Thursday [against Ludogorets] and even in a Europa League match where the intensity is different from that of the Premier League. I won’t play it for 90 minutes. I will always be this careful with him until we feel like he’s ready. But today, great personality, great impact, a very important goal for us ”.
