Bale beat Lyon keeper Remy Vercoutre with a dipping 35-yard free-kick on the stroke of half-time at White Hart Lane and then repeated the precision in the third minute of injury time at the end of the first leg tie.

In between, Samuel Umtiti had buried a fierce drive past Brad Friedel in the Spurs goal to keep the French side in the tie. “I’m delighted. I’ve been practising free-kicks and I scored one like that last week,” said Bale.u00a0