I was fuming when I scored overhead kick vs Liverpool - Zinedine Zidane's reaction said it all

Gareth Bale famously rose from the bench for Real Madrid to sink Liverpool with two goals in the 2018 Champions League final, one of which was a memorable overhead kick. However, the Welshman previously shared his assessment that he should have started the match.

Liverpool go to war with Real Madrid once more in the Champions League on Wednesday night. Arne Slot will attempt to mastermind the club's first head-to-head victory since March 2009, after so many recent years of hurt in European competition inflicted by the Spanish giants.

In the 2022/23 round of 16, the 2021/22 final in Paris and the 2020/21 quarter-finals, they were on hand to end the Reds dreams of more Champions League titles. These accounted for five of the six winless meetings Jurgen Klopp handled, with the very first happening all the way back in Kyiv's 2017/18 final.

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That day ended in disaster as Mohamed Salah went off injured early and Loris Karius - later explained to be concussed - allowed two mishaps ending in Real Madrid goals.

Though the one goal that anything can't be detracted from was Bale's first in that 3-1 result. Restoring his team's lead he leapt with his back-to-goal, connected with Marcelo's cross and Karius was rooted as it flew in.

But the 61st-minute substitute now tells FourFourTwo: "I was really frustrated not to start.

"I'd played pretty well since coming back from the last little niggle I’d had in December. I scored five goals in my last four league games of the season and felt like I deserved to be involved from the start."

Bale also admitted that then-Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane never spoke to him about the goal following the game - but insisted the pair's relationship was strictly professional.

"He didn’t talk to me about it – I still haven’t spoken to him since," Bale admitted, adding: "Our relationship was good. I wouldn’t say we were best mates, it was just a normal professional relationship."

The eventual deterioration of their working relationship would result in the winger leaving Spain, as Zidane returned to Real Madrid in 2019 having quit for the first time after the final in Ukraine.

The 2018 triumph was their third in succession, so they were very much at the peak of their powers at the time. Los Blancos have proven they are still able to end the season as Europe's best in the years since, even if they are not favourites to do so, but now as they are very much hindered by injury Liverpool will be hoping to finally exact some amount of revenge.