Gareth Bale refuses to blame empty stadium

Gareth Bale has insisted that Real Madrid cannot blame an empty stadium for failing to beat Legia Warsaw in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

The Group F clash in Warsaw was played behind closed doors due to a stadium ban, and Bale has admitted that "it was a strange game" due to the lack of atmosphere inside the ground.

The Welshman, however, who opened the scoring in the 3-3 draw, has claimed that his team 'can have no excuses' after missing the chance to book their spot in the knockout stage of the competition.

"It was a strange game, especially with the stadium. That's no excuse, though. We're not happy with the result and we need to bounce back," Bale told reporters. "I think we had control of the game at 2-0 and lost concentration and if you do that at this level you get punished.

"We'll learn from that and improve going forwards. We need to be better defensively and more clinical. We need to take the positives, learn from this and move forward."

Table-toppers Real Madrid will return to La Liga action at home to Leganes on Sunday.