Zinedine Zidane paid tribute to match-winner Gareth Bale after his Real Madrid side began their La Liga campaign with a 3-0 success against Real Sociedad.

Bale headed home his side’s opening goal inside two minutes at the Anoeta before completing the win deep into stoppage time at the end of the game.

In between, Marco Asensio had marked his full La Liga debut with a sublime finish for Madrid’s second goal just before half time.

Bale was the only member of Real Madrid’s feted ‘BBC’ attacking trident present in San Sebastian as Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema continue to recover from injury.

The Welsh wizard showed he is up for the challenge of leading Madrid in their absence and Zidane singled out the 27-year-old afterwards.

The Real boss paid tribute to how quickly Bale has got back to full speed having helped Wales to the Euro 2016 semi-finals in France over the summer.

“I’m happy for him, because he is physically behind the others and that has not been noticed,” said Zidane.

Bale has not always been flavour of the month with sections of the Bernabeu faithful and Zidane said that the player is fully aware of how important this season could be.

Bale continues to flourish on his trips to Sociedad, having now scored five times in four visits.

Zidane was relieved to win at a difficult venue, as Madrid avoided dropping points in their opening La Liga game for the second season running. “He started in the best way, scoring early.

This is a difficult place to come if you do not take your chances.

Gareth has already said this one is an important year for him, and it is showing,” he added. Real Madrid are 2.40 to win the Spanish title this season while champions Barcelona are 1.67.