Declan Rice could barely contain his ear-to-ear grin as he carried out his media duties following Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Real Madrid in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final clash.
He was the man of the hour: two inch-perfect free-kicks in the second half left the visitors utterly dejected, with Carlo Ancelotti admitting that “it seems like after tonight there are no possibilities” for Real Madrid to progress.
The sheer finesse with which he curled both strikes past Thibaut Courtois makes it incredibly hard to believe that they were the first free-kicks he’s ever scored in his professional career – and the midfielder joked post-match that “I’m not used to all of this praise!”
“They were really good! To be honest with you, I’m not used to all of this praise and media and just people saying how good the free-kicks were! I’ve seen them back a few times now but I think I’ll be up watching it all night. It’s an incredible moment, I can’t believe it,” he told Arsenal.com.
“As soon as I hit the first one and it went in, I thought ‘that’s my first ever free kick!’ And then I just had the confidence over the second one. I just thought, ‘why not? What have I got to lose?'”
“So, yeah, two went in and they’re just magic moments. They’re going to stay with me forever.”
The midfielder added: “This is probably up there with the best moment in my career in terms of the goals I’ve scored. I think the free-kick is probably the best goal I’ve scored. I think winning next week would probably top that, by going into the semi-final and producing something special for this club.”
But Arsenal must still face Real Madrid again – and at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, anything can happen. Rice praised the Gunners’ “unbelievable” support, and urged fans to replicate Tuesday’s atmosphere in Madrid next week.
“From the moment we turned up in the stadium to the kick off and to the 90th minute, they were outstanding and we’re going to need everyone at the Bernabéu next week because it’s going to be a massive night for us,” he concluded.
Estadio Santiago Bernabéu will host the second leg next Wednesday, with kick-off at 20:00 BST [21:00 CEST].