A jubilant declan rice said he had 'the best feeling in the world' after he had hit two amazing free kicks while Arsenal Blew Real Madrid away from the Emirates.
After a scoreless first half in this Champions League quarterfinals first legs, in 58 minutes, Rice impressively curled his set piece around the defensive wall of the opposition and earlier goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
And 12 minutes later the English man hit a house with free kick-this time choosing the upper right corner.
Rice had never scored from a direct free kick in his career of nearly 350 performances.
Mikel Merino later added a third to give the Gunners an advantage of three goals on the way to the second stage of next Wednesday in the Bernabeu. For the first time since 2009, they try to reach the semi -final of this competition in their last realistic hope of silverware this season.
“I don't know if it will ever sink,” said Rice. 'I had both (free kicks) and to have the confidence, I am a bit speechless.
“It's one of those moments, the best feeling in the world.”
At the first free kick he said: “Martin (Odegaard) said to say that it wasn't useful and it is so logical and so too chip. We practice them all the time, (set-piece coach Nicolas) Jover tells me that I have to cross and it was wrong.
“Bukayo (Saka) said,” If you feel it, go for it “. I looked at the wall and keeper and said I could bend it and that's what happened. '
And then from his second strike, he explained: 'It's far away, you don't even realize. We would touch and set it, but (Kylian) Mbappe was too close.
“He (Mbappe) was in the middle and I just went with it. I practice it a lot. I had the confidence after the first, I had nothing to lose.
“I don't think it will affect me what I have done to score twice.”
The man from England now has the attention for attacking the Spanish giants in the same way next week.
He added: 'We are not going back to defend, we will attack and want to be in the semi -final.
“We want to win this competition, but we have another leg to make the one game at the same time.”
Mikel Arteta was behind the two strikes of Rice and warned that Arsenal has even more in the locker to show.
He said: 'He (Rice) never scored a free kick in his career, we have not scored direct free kick since Burnley in 2021. What are the opportunities?
'It was two moments of individual quality and we have to show that we can do that again next week.
'We are in the middle of the draw. They were magical moments. We have much more to give. '
Jude Bellingham claimed that his Real Madrid side was lucky to just give in three goals, but said they are 'still alive'.
He said: “We were nowhere in the area. Two of the goals are really good free kicks, but to be honest she could have had much more, we were lucky to get away with three.
'But there is a second stage, we hold it, we need something incredibly special. We still live, we still have 90 minutes. '
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