DECANL RICE: The Arsenal midfielder crogs in the magic of punishment against Real Madrid in the Champions League
Arsenal is a team that has become renowned for their threat to set-pyzzi, but direct punishment kicks are something different.
Arte said that after the game he had not scored one since September 2021, so mark two in 13 minutes against Real Madrid “showed the beauty of anyone who invented this sport”.
Arsenal’s and usually taken from Bukayo Saka or Odegaard, but Rice said he saw the space around the Madrid wall for the first goal and told Saka that he was confident.
The English wing replied “if you hear it, try us” – and it will be happy to have done it.
“It had no sense from that angle to cross the ball (that the coach of the Arsenal set Nicolas Jover was reporting to do the contact line). He should have been a delicate passage,” added Rice.
“I’m happy to have taken it because it was magical.”
He did not prevent Jover who was up to celebration and Rice said he said the coach “was later supporting him”.
Arte added: “It can claim him if he wants it, it doesn’t matter. It’s incredible.”
Open was the goal that Arsenal deserved for their domain, but the best still had to come.
Alan Shearer said that it was “absolutely incredible” and the former Real Madrid Clarence Seederf midfielder said he said that “not even Superman would take him”.
“It seems far away, you don’t even realize. We were about to touch and put it – Martin and I (Odegaard), but Mbappe was a little too close.
“But then I thought, I have the guardian team, I practice it so much – I was about to do it. I had confidence from the first. If it had gone beyond the bar it would not be important.
“It won’t hit me now because there is another leg to travel. I am excited, I am happy, I am in seventh heaven.
“It was in the cabinet, but I hit the wall too many times or went beyond the bar.
“But in a few years this will really affect me that what I did tonight was very special.”
For Rice this has been his greatest moment so far in an Arsenal shirt, but Arte and midfielder Mikel Merino – who scored the third goal – were not surprised by how the former West Ham man got up.
“If there is a player who can do it, how clean it strikes him, he is Declan,” said Arte.
“But you have to perform it at the highest levels. And against one of the best custodians in the world. It is incredible.
“It was very determined because we talked in recent months. He did it tonight.”
Merino added: “He has one of the best shooting skills I saw in my career. I’m not surprised, maybe you are. I hope it will arrive in the future.”
The former defender of Arsenal Matthew Upson told the BBC Radio 5 Live that it was “one night to remember” for Rice and had “made the difference alone”.
