Gareth Bale ready to inflict more pain on Inter Milan
Red-hot Spurs star can torment Italians again in Europa League first-leg, last-16 match
Tottenham Hotspur's Gareth Bale will be out to repeat his torment of Inter Milan when the sides meet again at White Hart Lane today in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie.
The Welshman rose to global prominence in October 2010 when he scored a stunning second-half hat-trick as Spurs rallied from 4-0 down in a 4-3 loss to Inter at San Siro in the Champions League group phase.
He then masterminded Tottenham's revenge in the return fixture, destroying Brazil right-back Maicon in one of the great displays of modern wing play and teeing up goals for Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko in a 3-1 win.
Two seasons on, the 23-year-old forward is in breath-taking form, having opened the scoring in a 2-1 win at Arsenal on Sunday that took Spurs up to third place in the Premier League.
It was his ninth goal in his last seven appearances in all competitions and teammate Michael Dawson believes he compares with the best players in the world.
"Gaz is up there with [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Lionel] Messi in terms of ability," said the English centre-back. "He's one of the best players in the world at the moment, and probably the best in the world for me right now.