Gareth Bale Inter-upts defending champs’ march

The chinks in Inter Milan’s armour were exposed again by Gareth Bale in Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-1 Champions League win over the holders as all three teams capable of reaching the next stage flopped on Tuesday.

Like Inter, 2009 winners Barcelona only needed victory to go through with two games to spare but drew 1-1 at FC Copenhagen in Group D to show nothing can be taken for granted in this season’s enthralling competition.

Olympique Lyon’s three-game winning streak and hopes of a quick passage to the first knockout round were dashed in a 4-3 defeat at Benfica in Group B, the latest in a series of European matches with goals and passion galore.

Manchester United were the only group leaders who could not guarantee qualification this week but they took a big leap towards it thanks to Darren Fletcher, Gabriel Obertan and Bebe netting in a 3-0 win at Turkey’s Bursaspor. Valencia beat Rangers 3-0 to leapfrog their opponents into second in Group C.

Bale made Europe sit up and take notice with his hat-trick in the 4-3 defeat at the San Siro two weeks ago and the Welsh winger added another few million to his transfer value as Inter again failed to handle his pace.

“Definitely the team had a great second half,” Tottenham’s Italian goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini said. “Bale never stops, he just runs and runs. He has incredible speed but very good technique and this helps him put all right backs in trouble. Then he has a formidable cross.”

Rafael van der Vaart, suspended two weeks ago, sent White Hart Lane mad with a first-half goal after good work by Luca Modric but the Dutchman was substituted at the break with a nagging injury.

Peter Crouch made sure it was an unhappy return to England for his former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez when he slid in for the second on 61 minutes after Bale showed stunning acceleration to whip in the perfect cross.

Red-hot Samuel Eto’o bagged his seventh goal of the group stage for injury-hit Inter but Roman Pavlyuchenko converted another Bale pass a minute from time as Tottenham went top on head-to-head record. In the other group game, Dutch champions Twente Enschede boosted their slight hopes of progressing with a 2-0 win at Werder Bremen.