Mourinho suggests more opportunities to start lie ahead for Gareth Bale

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 17 May 2021 18:35 BST
• 2 min read

Jose Mourinho says that Gareth Bale was substituted in the Europa League on Thursday evening with the West Ham game in mind, and suggested the Welshman was in line to start more games for Tottenham going forward.

Bale started just his 11th game of the season against Wolfsberger, but made the most of his place in the starting XI by scoring a goal and recording an assist.

With Spurs leading 3-1 and looking comfortable in the game and the tie as a whole, the Real Madrid loanee was taken off just after the hour mark.

Mourinho insists that Bale was withdrawn to keep him fresh for further opportunities, though.

“I took Gareth off, I know in this process it was not so easy to play the 90 minutes,” the Tottenham boss said after the eventual 4-1 win.

“I know that the match is already Sunday at 12pm but I believe that he has a chance to play the match and let’s wait.”

“He’s the kind of player also, who is experienced and his feeling are a very important thing, like Harry Kane. I believe for him it was important to play and not to play the full 90 minutes.”

The 4-1 first-leg scoreline puts Spurs in a brilliant position to reach the last 16, and Mourinho reckons they have “one foot” towards progression, having been impressed with how his players took to the task against the Austrian outfit.

“I think we have one foot in the next round,” he said.

“I liked the performance in the first half. The performance in the second half gave them a little bit of self esteem.”

“We had a result and we had a team performance. I believe they were positive like the team was.”

When do Tottenham play West Ham?

The game on Sunday that Mourinho was previously referring to sees Tottenham take on rivals West Ham at the London Stadium.

They are currently six points behind the Hammers in the table, but could give their chances of qualification for the Champions League a major boost by claiming all three points to move up a few places.