Against Celta Vigo on Saturday night, we saw the very best of Gareth Bale.

The Welshman was scintillating and provided a vintage performance. His was a man-of-the-match showing of the highest quality, indeed the type of game that encouraged Real Madrid to purchase him in the first place.

Zinedine Zidane has been waiting to see that for some while now, and with a perfect sense of timing, Bale delivered.

Persistent injury concerns robbed the winger of any sort of form in the first half of the season, and even though he’s had markedly less minutes than many of his colleagues, his brace against the Galicians puts him second in the scoring charts behind Cristiano Ronaldo.

In the latter part of the campaign, as the coach has sought to find his best XI, the Welshman’s involvement has been sporadic at best.

But he’s really given Zidane food for thought with the Champions League final just around the corner.

He also gloriously found the net at Barcelona in Real’s previous outing, as well as other important contributions when called upon.

It’s worth pointing out that, given their poor showing across the season, Zidane arguably still doesn’t know his best formation or set of personnel.

Does he start with a 4-4-2 against Liverpool which will include Isco, or does he drop the Spaniard and go back to a 4-3-3 and BBC?

Bale has pace to burn, and if there’s anything that could cause problems for Liverpool, it’s a galloping Welshman.

Los Blancos simply don’t have that when he’s left on the sidelines.

In the wake of the Celta result, and in particular Bale’s man-of-the-match cameo, Zidane spoke at length in his post-match press conference to suggest that he will have trouble picking his XI.

At this point, with the former Tottenham man seemingly having rediscovered his best form, the coach would be foolish to not accommodate him.

With one more La Liga game to play, against Villarreal, and with Cristiano Ronaldo likely to be rested again, Bale can cement his place in Kiev with another above-par showing.

His form also asks a bigger question of Real Madrid too.

There continues to be rumours emanating from Madrid that the Welshman could command a significant fee if sold. Be that by moving back to the Premier League or elsewhere.

Neymar is interesting Los Blancos, Robert Lewandowski wants to engineer a move there, and Vinicius Junior is set to arrive half way through the next campaign.

Therefore, Real clearly need sizeable funds available.

However, even with squad evolution in mind, can the club really be considering axing Bale when keeping Karim Benzema?

For now, Bale can bask in the knowledge he’s done all he can to convince Zidane, and perhaps even those in the boardroom.

Impeccable timing.