English team Arsenal stunned the mighty Real Madrid in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal, where Declan Rice stole the show with his brilliant performance. The midfielder scored two goals from two unbelievable free kicks, followed by Mikel Merino’s third goal in the 75th minute.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, failed to recover and left Emirates Stadium with empty hands. The Los Blancos need a massive comeback in the second leg at Santiago Bernabeu, where they must win with a 4-0 margin to qualify for the semifinal.
Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti knows their chances are low to go through the next round, but he is still hopeful. Ancelotti said, “We have to do everything we can to try and recover. The chances are pretty slim but we have to try, and we’ll try and do it any way we can. Let’s see if we can pull it off. It feels as though there’s no chance after tonight, but things always change in football. Nobody expected Arsenal to score two free-kicks, but anything can happen. It’s very tough, but stranger things have happened at the Bernabéu.”
As It Happened
Arsenal welcomed Real Madrid at Emirates Stadium to play the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal, where Mikel Arteta set up the formation with 4-3-3. On the other hand, Ancelotti played his team in a 4-4-2 formation, leaving Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior in two wings.
However, the match started with the two teams playing attacking football. But Arsenal utilized the home advantage and created more chances than Real Madrid. Despite this, both teams failed to break the deadlock in the first half.
Coming from the break, midfielder Declan Rice took Arsenal ahead with a fantastic free-kick from 30 yards. His powerful shot found the right corner of the net to give Arsenal the crucial lead at Emirates Stadium.
The English midfielder stunned Real Madrid once again with his brilliant free-kick in the 70th minute. Thibaut Courtois once again failed to save this shot, leading Arsenal to go 2-0 up in the match.
Real Madrid, after that, tried their best to recover. But Arsenal hammered the last nail to Madrid’s coffin when Mikel Merino made it 3-0 with a brilliant finish just five minutes after the brace of Declan Rice. In the end, the Gunners secured the first leg with a dominating 3-0 win over Real Madrid and are looking forward to the next leg.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta shared his thoughts after the match. He is very proud of his team and said, “We had a very complete and big performance collectively and you need that in the organisation and what we had to do to dominate the game and to create Madrid problems. This night is about all two factors, one is the atmosphere that we created 15 minutes before kick-off is something I haven’t seen before, so playing with that energy, with that commitment with your crowd makes a huge difference. And then magic moments, individual moments that decide all matches and the first two goals of Declan sums up the night.”
