There he is. That’s the package they thought they were unwrapping a few months back. The guy who used to win games with a savage beauty and then do that heart thing with his hands, like a killer with a conscience.
We might see not that Gareth Bale again in the biggest matches against the best teams. Who knows? But game by game there is a growing hope that we will, and maybe in time the great resurrection will be traced back to days like this, and what appears to be a spreading patch of form.
Again, some perspective.