Santiago Solari Addresses Gareth Bale's Lack of Celebration After Goal in Win Over Levante

Santiago Solari was thrilled with Gareth Bale's substitute performance after the Welsh winger scored a decisive penalty for Real Madrid in their 2-1 win over

Santiago Solari was thrilled with Gareth Bale's substitute performance after the Welsh winger scored a decisive penalty for Real Madrid in their 2-1 win over Levante on Sunday.

In what was a rather underwhelming performance from Real, they had to rely on two penalties to earn all three points - both being awarded following VAR reviews. The second of the two came during the closing exchanges, with Bale stepping up to confidently stroke home from 12 yards to ensure that Los Blancos came away with all three points.

Bale opted not to celebrate the goal, seemingly angered by the fact he was left on the bench in the first place, but Solari took no offence to the gesture.

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"You [the media] have more eyes than me. What I saw was how hard he worked on the pitch." the Real manager said, via Goal.

"He was happy in the dressing room because he scored. I loved how he came on and played with rage.

"He won us the game and did a great job. I thought he had a fantastic match. He gave us the victory. If you score the goals, you can celebrate as you want."

🏁 FT: @LevanteUD 1-2 @realmadrid
⚽ Roger 60'; @Benzema 43' (p). @GarethBale11 78' (p)#Emirates | #RMLiga pic.twitter.com/7yDkiqqYUf

— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) February 24, 2019

Despite the fact that the display was far from convincing, Solari was keen to take away the positives from the narrow victory.

"We put the focus on the positives," he said. "And the positive thing was how we worked in this game. It's a very complicated fixture, but we played a very serious match.

"We could have scored earlier with Vinicius [Junior] and the result would have been more substantial."