Arsenal’s central defender, William Saliba, joked that he had never seen Declan Rice after scoring his teammate against Real Madrid against Real Madrid twice against Real Madrid on Tuesday evening.
Rice bent his first efforts to break the Deadlock for 12 minutes before exceeding a second free kick about Thibaut Courtois. Mikel Merino’s crunchy strike let off a 3-0 win in the first leg of the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
“Today is the first time that I did a good free kick,” laughed Saliba Reporter after the Knockout tie in a cheering Emirates Stadium. “We don’t usually score many goals from free kicks. I am very proud of him and I hope we will achieve again. I am sure he will do it again.”
No Arsenal player had achieved a direct free kick because Martin Odegaard rolled together against Burnley in September 2021. Rice had never found the back of the network from this special dead ball scenario in his professional career, although the English international had only received 12 attempts in his first 338 seniors.
Rice was safer in his skills than Saliba. The match winner on Tuesday ignored the advice of Arsenal’s terminal coach Nicolas Jover when he aimed at his first efforts. “It was in the locker,” insisted Rice.
Saliba’s regular central defender Gabriel was not fit and was warm while he was continued by the stands by the stands. The Brazilian found his way into the changing room for the celebrations after the game and praised rice with praise and pleaded with the English midfielder “giving me your right foot”.
Accordingly Opta The expected target model had a 1 -in -435 chance to achieve both free kicks based on the position of both dead balls.
Only four other players have ever achieved two direct free kicks in the same Champions League game. Rice joined a famous list of Rivaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Hakim Ziyech.