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It looks like the love affair between Real Madrid fans, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Welsh international winger Gareth Bale may be over, or at least has been temporarily put on hold. Fans of the Spanish La Liga club have taken to jeering Bale over the last couple of home games even though he’s been scoring goals and setting them up. However, team manager Carlo Ancelotti has come to his defence. Real Madrid beat Espanyol 3-0 at home on January 10 with Bale helping set up the opening goal by James Rodriguez.

He then scored the second goal with an exceptional free kick just before halftime. Real was then reduced to 10 men in the second half when defender Fabio Coentrao was sent off with a red card. Bale had a chance to score his second of the game and make it 3-0 shortly thereafter, but failed to score. He also had the option of passing to Cristiano Ronaldo, but chose to go for goal instead, which is what all good strikers should do.

Ronaldo, arguably the world’s best soccer player, then lost it on Bale as he felt he should have passed him the ball for an easy tap in. Spanish TV cameras also showed Ronaldo insulting Bale in Portuguese. Ancelotti said Bale had a good game though as he scored and helped create Rodriguez’s goal. He added that he didn’t pass to Ronaldo and that’s why the fans started to get on his case, but he had no problem with Bale trying to score himself. Ancelotti remarked that if any of the players are being too selfish he’ll try to fix the problem, but doesn’t believe one exists.

Perhaps the reason for Ronaldo’s childish outburst was also for selfish reasons since it was the first time he hasn’t scored at the Bernabeu as a starter in a league match since back in September of 2013. The Spanish media also criticized Bale a week earlier and hinted that he was a ball hog when he failed to pass to Karim Benzema or Ronaldo a week earlier in the team’s 2-1 loss to Valencia.

Ancelotti told the press, “We don’t need to make a big deal of it. It is a moment that happens many times. The relationship between the players is very good and not just between Gareth and Cristiano. The team has shown for a long time that the relationship is good between all the players.”