Andre Villas-Boas: Gareth Bale booking is good news Bale earned his third booking of the Europa League campaign when referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz of Spain judged that he had dived in an attempt to win a penalty. Villas-Boas refused to be drawn on Bale's growing reputation for simulation, but suggested that following Tottenham's 3-0 win, the club would be better served by Bale's serving his suspension at the San Siro rather than running the risk of triggering it later on. "He was at the risk of being suspended if he received another yellow card," he said. We now have him clean of problems for the last eight if we go through. To be fair, probably with this result, we would have asked for him to get a yellow card to clean and be ready for the last eight. The club later clarified Villas-Boas's comments, insisting that he was not an advocate of 'deliberate" or 'premeditated" bookings. Nonetheless, Villas-Boas was relaxed by the prospect of losing his standout player for the return game. "I think we are in a good position," he said. We are not finished. We will miss Gareth, because he has been influential in consecutive games, but hopefully we can make it without him. He's a tremendous player, of course he's going to be missed. But the opportunity might arise for another player. On the incident itself, in which Bale appeared to fall over the leg of Inter Milan's Walter Gargano, Villas-Boas said: "It's a difficult decision for the ref. In the end he applied the same [punishment] after a foul in midfield, where [Fredy[ Guarin received the yellow card for simulation, so he kept the criteria. Bale, who scored the opening goal, said: "We played well and set the tempo from the first whistle," he said. We made it difficult for them. It was a great performance and we take a great lead into the away leg, with no away goals for them.