Declan Rice revealed that he resisted Arsenal’s set-piece coach Nicolas Jover when he decided to shoot against Real Madrid from the first of his two breathtaking free flaps.
After a well -balanced, goalless first half of the year in the first leg of the couple’s champion, Bukayo Saka won a free kick almost 30 meters from the gate before the hour shortly before the hour. Rice leaned abundant efforts around Madrid’s gray shirts to break the Deadlock with the first direct free kick of his professional career.
But if Jover had made his way, Rice’s piece of history would never have happened.
“He [Jover] Tell me to cross myself, “said Rice to Amazon Prime After the 3-0 victory. “It made no sense. I’m glad I took it. Bukayo said: ‘If you feel it, do it.’ I looked at the wall and the goalkeeper and thought: “I can bend it outwards.”
“It was in the locker, but I hit the wall too often or it went over the bar. Originally we wanted to cross it and I just saw the position of the wall and the goalkeeper. So I thought I just imagined it.”
Exercise makes perfect! 👌
Declan Rice ensured that he had warming up before he twice against Real Madrid against Real Madrid! 🎯🎯 pic.twitter.com/2MTUXN7L64
– 90 minutes (@90min_football) April 8, 2025
The goalkeeper of Real Madrid, Thibaut Courtois, took over “Responsibility” for Rice’s first free kick. “At the first foul I thought I had set up a good wall” Movistar Plus+. “I always put an additional man on the ball so that this curve does not go through, but Declan Rice shot very well.”
Rice was only allowed to take 12 free colleagues in the first 338 games of his career. After his 13th attempt, the England internationally created an even spectacular effort 12 minutes later. From the opposite side of the field, Reis put a toxic exertion towards the upper corner, which Courtois guarded, but the 6’6 Belgian had nothing more than handful.
“The second, it looks far out,” Rice recalled wistfully. “At first I wanted to walk the wall over the wall, but I practice a lot, a lot to go to the goalkeeper side, and I just went with it. After the first, I only had self -confidence.”
Courtois couldn’t take Rice away for his second effort. “He couldn’t have shooted better,” twitched the Belgian.
Read the latest Arsenal messages, transfer rumors and gossip