Bale devastated after City defeat

Gareth Bale has revealed Tottenham are ‘devastated’ and ‘feel sick’ after their 3-2 defeat to Manchester City.

In 10 frantic second-half minutes City had raced into a two-goal lead at the Etihad Stadium through Samir Nasri and Joleon Lescott before Jermain Defoe and Bale struck levelled.

Mario Balotelli would, however, go on to convert a 95th-minute penalty to secure all three points for Roberto Mancini’s men and while Bale admits Spurs can ‘take heart’ from the performance, they are still left reeling at the defeat.

“Everyone’s devastated,” the Welshman told the club’s official website.

“We can take heart from the performance, but we all feel sick that we’ve lost the game that way.”

“I don’t think we deserved to lose the game.”

“We showed our character to come from 2-0 down and I thought we should have won the game. We can’t quite believe it.”

Defoe missed a glorious late chance to put Spurs 3-2 ahead before Balotelli grabbed what proved to be the winner and Bale rued the wasted chance, insisting the Italy international’s late effort “was a massive blow”.

“I was waiting for the ball to hit the back of the net,” Bale said.

“For them to then go up the other end, get a penalty and win the game was a massive blow.”

“That’s football. It bites back when you think you are on top. I thought we were fantastic and we’ll pick ourselves up.”

On the missed opportunity Defoe himself suggested the outcome of the match could have been different, if only he had longer legs to have converted the chance.

He said, via Twitter: “Thinking if only I had longer legs #Gutted”