DECLAN Rice curled home two superb free kicks to help give Arsenal a 3-0 win over defending champions Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals.
Rice opened the scoring in the 58th minute on Tuesday by bending a free kick around the Madrid wall and inside the near post, leaving goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois stranded.
With Madrid great, Roberto Carlos, looking on in the stands – the Brazilian scored a number of spectacular free kicks in his day – Rice then repeated the feat in the 70th by curling another effort into the far top corner.
Mikel Merino added the third five minutes later to put Arsenal on the brink of returning to the semi-finals for the first time since 2009.
Only a handful of saves from Courtois prevented the score line from getting even bigger.
“In the second half, we knew we had to score and to score three was a real positive,” Rice told Prime Sports.
“The message from the manager was that we needed to be super convinced that we could come and win this game.
“As a group of players, we were really convinced that we were out there as a team fighting for each other.”
It was the teams’ first meeting since 2006, when Arsenal eliminated Madrid in the round of 16.
The second leg will be played on April 16 at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
“It’s not going to hit me yet because there is another leg to go,” Rice said of his two sensational strikes.
“I’m excited, I’m happy, I’m over the moon. I don’t mean to be clichéd but I think this will hit me in a few years’ time – that what I did was really special.”
French forward Kylian Mbappe had the best of Real’s chances but was twice denied by David Raya in the Arsenal goal.
“For 68 minutes, the game was level, and then they hit two fantastic free kicks and the game changed,” Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti told Prime Sport.
“We did not react as we need to react and they scored another goal and now it will be very difficult but we have to try. Mentally, we went down and we had problems in the last 30 minutes of the game.”
Real midfielder, Jude Bellingham, was more critical of last season’s double winners: “We were nowhere near it, that’s the fact. Arsenal were really good. I know two of their goals were free kicks but, to be honest, they could have had way more. We were lucky to get away with three.
“If there’s one place where crazy things can happen, it’s our house … We are still alive, we’ve still got 90 minutes of football and anything can happen at the Bernabeu.”
