The look on Sergio Ramos’s face said it all. His eyes were wide, his mouth was open and his jaw had hit the floor. He had just seen something spectacular. He scrambled to his feet and applauded loudly. This, coming from a man who has spent the last few seasons watching the continually dazzling displays of Cristiano Ronaldo, was high praise but it deserved it.

Xabi Alonso squared a pass to Gareth Bale, who found himself surrounded by space about 30 yards away from goal. He controlled the ball with his right foot, set it up with his left, and before the Elche defence could react, the ball had whizzed and fizzed its way into the back of the net.

Bale's season so far has been fair to middling for a man who cost the club a reported €100m, but as Madrid travel to Schalke tonight in their Champions League round of 16 tie, it is time he and their season got down to business.

Incredible highlights
There have been some incredible highlights, not least his latest goal, his perfect hat-trick against Valladolid – it took Ronaldo 62 games to perform this feat but it had taken Bale, right, just 13 – or his debut home performance against Sevilla when he scored twice, set up another two and left the opposition defence with a face redder than Rudolph's nose.

From afar, his La Liga numbers look good. There have been nine assists to go with his 10 goals in 17 appearances. The numbers, however, only tell part of the story.

At times he has struggled against the bigger sides and he has often looked as if he is trying too hard, a sure sign of a player who is overcompensating as he struggles to settle into his new surroundings.

The defenders in Spain did not take too long to cotton on to the fact that a primarily left-footed attacker playing primarily on the right needed to be pushed into using his weaker foot rather than being allowed to cut inside.

After Madrid cruised to a most comfortable win over Getafe – in which the rest of the forward line found the back of the net in the absence of the suspended Ronaldo, while Bale left his shooting boots in the dressing-room – the manager, Carlo Ancelotti, said the Welshman had “lacked quality” if not “quantity”.

In defence of Bale, he did not have a proper pre-season, and niggling injuries throughout the season will not have helped him find his rhythm and his best form and, of course, a period of adaptation is to be expected from a player who has a new language and a new culture in which to immerse himself.

As Bale admits, playing for Madrid is more white-hot heat than White Hart Lane. “There is a lot of expectation here,” he said in a recent interview, “we’re the biggest club in the world, we want to win every game and there’s an expectation for us to win every game but it’s one that we all like.”

Madrid will travel to Schalke with a sense of trepidation. Maybe it is the heavy beer or the fried sausages but something unsettles the Madrid stomach once they cross the German border.

Miserable record
They have played 25 games there in both the Champions League and its previous incarnation, and they have a miserable record: lost 18, drawn six and won just once. That win came 14 years ago but more recently Borussia Dortmund and Robert Lewandowski inflicted the mother of all hammerings.

The form of the German side should also give them something to worry about. They had been poor enough before the winter break but with rest in their bones they have improved of late. Only Bayern Munich have picked up more points in the Bundesliga over the last six games.

And after the victory over Elche, Ancelotti admitted that this season had left Bale bereft of a bit of backbone. “He was lacking confidence before that great goal. After that you saw him in a different game,” said the former Chelsea manager. “It was a case of playing okay before the goal and fantastic after it,” he added.

That goal should thus have him walking into this game with his shoulders back and his head held high. And if he can replicate the sort of moments that had Ramos jumping from his seat and help his side take an important step towards that 10th European Cup, then his season may finally be up and running.
Guardian Service