Declan Rice produced two moments of magic in Arsenal’s historic victory over Real Madrid at the Emirates.
With the game poised at 0-0, Rice stepped up and whipped a spectacular free-kick past Thibaut Courtois to open the scoring.
The Englishman then repeated the feat, netting an even more impressive effort from a dead ball just 12 minutes later.
Mikel Merino added a third to give Mikel Arteta’s team an unassailable lead heading to the Bernabeu next week.
Alan Shearer revealed what he heard before Declan Rice scored vs Real Madrid
Thierry Henry claimed Rice was ‘possessed’ during the Real Madrid game, with the Englishman scoring the first two free-kicks of his career against Los Blancos, in the biggest club game he’s participated in.
The midfielder was sensational throughout, dictating the game from the middle of the park with his lung-bursting runs into the box.
Supposedly defying the instructions of his captain, Martin Odegaard, it was certainly a shock when Rice opted to shoot from the first free-kick.
Speaking on the Rest is Football podcast, Alan Shearer revealed his experience of the moment as a commentator of the Champions League clash in N5.
“Unbelievable,” the pundit said.
“And it’s his first direct free-kick he’s scored in his career. Staggering. Absolutely staggering.
“Did it come across on TV? There was a man behind me who was screaming ‘smash it Declan, smash it’ just before. I mentioned it in my co-coms, and all he did was smash it.
“The bend on the thing, oh my god. The atmosphere on the night was the best I’ve ever heard it at the Emirates. I spoke to a few Arsenal fans and asked them if it was the best you’ve seen in a long time at the Emirates, and they all were like ‘yep, absolutely’.
“I think it was one of those nights just because of who they were playing. They’ll be saying in 5, 10, 20 years time, we were at that game. It was that good.”
Declan Rice has to be Arsenal’s free-kick taker from now on
To many people’s surprise, Rice emerged as Arsenal’s primary left-sided corner taker mid-way through last season.
After roughly five matches of taking these set-pieces, it became apparent as to why the Gunners’ coaching staff had made this decision.
Whipping beautiful corners towards the back post on a consistent basis, the England international’s technical quality from dead balls is extraordinary.
Arsenal hadn’t scored directly from a free-kick since Odegaard netted away at Burnley in September 2021, before Rice scored two in 12 minutes against Real Madrid.
With his corner quality so evident, it’s bemusing that Rice hasn’t been tasked with taking free-kicks for Arsenal for a while now.
After these two efforts, he’ll certainly be on them moving forward.
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