gareth bale
Real Madrid's Gareth Bale celebrates his goal against Barcelona at Mestalla stadium in Valencia Reuters

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has hailed Gareth Bale's performance in last night's Copa del Rey final, claiming the Welshman's majestic winner was the most important goal of his career.

Ancelotti also praised his team's all-round performance, saying "all my players played well [and] played as a team" to beat Barca at Valencia's Mestalla stadium.

Ancelotti continued: "If you want to beat Barcelona, you have to be compact, play as a unit, play as one, and we did."

Bale won the match with a marvellous individual goal in the 85th minute, after Barca defender Marc Bartra had equalised Angel di Maria's first-half opener.

Real could have scored several more goals last night, while Barcelona, despite having the majority of possession, created few clear-cut opportunities.

The performance piles pressure on the Catalans' Argentine manager, Tata Martino, who faces the prospect of finishing the season without a trophy. Even if he survives the managerial axe, Martino is unlikely to be able to reinforce his squad this summer, due to Barcelona's transfer ban.

After the match Martino admitted his team were "in pain" and "in debt" to all the supporters who travelled from far and wide to watch the match.

However the coach said there were many positives to be taken from the match, and claimed his team had much scope for improvement in the wake of their third defeat in eight days.