Gareth Bale has opened up on an admission that some Liverpool players had reportedly made to him ahead of the 2018 Champions League final.
The Welshman was the star of the show, coming on in the second-half to replace Isco and help provide a focal point in attack for Zinedine Zidane's side.
Following a tense first half, Karim Benzema and Sadio Mane traded strikes to bring the scores level at 1-1, before the 33-year-old, who announced his retirement from professional football to score one of the most impressive goals ever seen in a Champions League final.
Bale stepped onto the pitch and just three minutes later, scored an outer-worldly bicycle-kick that put the Galactico's 2-1 up after 64 minutes.
But he wasn't done there, returning 20 minutes later to hit a long range effort at Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, who fumbled the save, letting the thumping effort pass through his hands to give the LaLiga outfit a 3-1 win.
In a seven-year spell at the club, Bale went on to win five Champions League titles and three LaLiga titles.
He went on to make 258 appearances, scoring 106 times in all competitions for Madrid, helping his side go on to become one of the most successful teams in European football.
They would go on to defeat Liverpool again in the Champions League final Paris just four years later.
Bale has shone a light on the emotions of some of the players in Jurgen Klopp's team ahead of the 2018 final, admitting some had struggled to sleep.
'I remember talking to Liverpool players before the first Champions League final in which we faced each other,' Bale said in an interview with BT Sport.
'It was hard for them to sleep, they were nervous...we had a different mentality. We only thought of winning, and even more so in a final, despite the fact that they arrived playing better than us.'
It comes as Adam Lallana had previously admitted he had 'felt petrified' during the final.
Liverpool would ultimately go on to undo the heartache of that final and win their sixth European cup in 2019.
But the Welshman, who prior to his retirement moved to Los Angeles FC where he played 14 games, shone a light on the differences in standards between the MLS outfit and those at Real Madrid.
Bale added: 'If you lose at Real Madrid, it is like the world has ended. You are crucified. You feel down. You go home and you're not happy.
'They (in the US) accept losing a bit more. There is no consequence. You can't get relegated over there. When you lose a game you go on to the next one. They accept losing a lot better over there.'
Bale has since been spotted out on the golf course, and it seems his skills with a club in hand are almost equally as impressive as his footballing abilities.
Earlier this year, a video emerged of the the former Wales forward hitting a miraculous hole-in-one at the Torrey Pines Golf Course in California.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have also tried to coax him out of retirement to play for Wrexham, but it appears, according to his agent, that he no longer wants to play football.