MADRID: Gareth Bale described lifting the Champions League trophy with Real Madrid as “a dream come true” after he scored a decisive goal in Lisbon on Saturday night.

City rivals Real and Atletico de Madrid were level at 1-1 in the second half of extra time when Bale struck in the 110th minute. Real ran out 4-1 winners to claim a record-extending 10th European Champions’ crown,

Bale will be bringing Real Madrid to his Welsh homeland at the start of next season when they face Europa League winners Sevilla in the UEFA Supercup in Cardiff on August 12.

The €100m signing from Tottenham who had missed three chances in normal time, pushed a close-range header into an empty net after Angel Di Maria’s shot had been parried by Atletico goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Bale said: “It’s dream come true, literally. When you’re a little boy you dream of lifting the Champions League, and to lift the 10th one for Real Madrid is special. It’s one that will go down in history.

“It’s an amazing feeling to win the Champions League. It was a hard fought game, they made it very difficult for us, but yes, we showed our character that we’ve got in the team and eventually we were able to win.

“We always were praying that we’d get a goal, and it was obviously great that we did. We left it late but it made it that extra bit more special.

“It was a difficult extra time, everybody was tired, but we showed our character again, and we were able to lift ourselves for the last 30 minutes. We got the momentum and got a few goals to win the trophy.”

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