Declan Rice’s heroics stunned Arsenal team-mates – ‘Don’t see that in training’

Declan Rice scored two brilliant free-kicks as Arsenal beat Real Madrid 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash at the Emirates on Tuesday

Declan Rice’s ability to bend it like Beckham was such a secret weapon even his Arsenal team-mates didn’t know about it. As Arsenal basked in the acclaim after the Champions League rout that stunned football, England midfielder Rice’s identikit free-kicks – whipped round an inadequate Real Madrid wall – were the crowning glory on the Gunners’ greatest night at the Emirates.

But defender William Saliba, who shackled the world ’s most coveted striker Kylian Mbappe, revealed it was not even a keynote of Arsenal’s game plan. For all the 15-times European Cup winners’ bravado and trash talk, the Gunners are favourites to reach the semi-finals after their 3-0 demolition of Real in the first leg.

And Saliba revealed: “We don’t score a lot of direct free kicks and today he scored two in a game like this. We are so proud of him and we hope he will score again. We are so proud of him because he was amazing.

“You know, I don’t see that from him in training! It’s the first time I’ve seen a good free kick from Dec. I am so proud of him and I’m sure he will score again. It’s one of the best nights (of my career) and I hope it’s not the last one.

“It was incredible because to win in a quarter-final like this against Madrid, in front of our fans, is amazing. But now we have to do it again next week away. We are so proud because we knew they had the best player in the world, so we are so happy to keep the clean sheet and we have to to win that game.”

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Arsenal look doomed to come up short in the title race for a third consecutive year, but the nature of Tuesday night’s rampant second-half display at the Emirates has turned them into genuine Champions League contenders.

And Saliba says it will give the Gunners’ young squad belief that they are equipped to conquer Europe, adding: “We want to go there and win the game. We won 3-0 today but we know it is not finished.

“There are a lot of things that can happen. We have to go to the Bernabeu to win and not defend the whole game. But this gives us a lot of confidence for what is coming next. We have to keep going like this, even if we have a young team, we can win.

“We want to win again next week and qualify. We don’t have to be scared going there. We don’t want to hide behind the injuries. We know that we haven’t been so lucky this season with injuries but we have to keep going.

“We have a lot of good players who can step up and it gave us a lot of confidence for what is coming. So, yeah, we are not scared.”

Rice, who totally upstaged his England team-mate Jude Bellingham – anonymous as an attacking threat – admitted he would be up all night watching his free-kicks on repeat. He said: “I’m speechless – this has never happened to me before.

“We know how much this night meant. It’s a real historic night for the club. I’m so happy. I’ve seen the free-kicks 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.

”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?’ They are just magic moments and they going to stay with me forever.”

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