Real Madrid 1-1 Athletic Bilbao: 5 Talking Points

#2 The curious case of Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema

Gareth Bale started the game from the bench

The past week or so has not been kind to Gareth Bale at all. After being taken off at halftime against Juventus, Bale was dropped for the trip to Malaga. He was again on the bench against Athletic Bilbao, coming on only in the 69th minute.

The recent turn of events points to only one possibility, and that is the fact that Bale's time at the Bernabeu could coming to an end. But Zinedine Zidane, in his post-match press conference, gave a diplomatic response when asked about Gareth Bale.

Zidane said, "There is no problem with Bale. He is one of 25 players in the squad. He did not start today, others did and are playing well too. You keep asking but my answer on this will not change."

Meanwhile, Karim Benzema endured another lacklustre outing. The striker has now scored just one goal in his last 10 appearances and was anonymous against Bilbao for the majority of his time on the field. Zidane refused to talk about his favoured striker and maintained that he will focus only on the positives of the striker.