It is not often that Real Madrid, who have been European champions a staggering 15 times, lose 3-0 in a UEFA Champions League match. The seemingly improbable happened at the Emirates Stadium last Tuesday, April 8, as Declan Rice scored a brace and Mikel Merino added another to guide Arsenal to a big win against Real Madrid.
Los Blancos have a big task in their hands in the return leg at Santiago Bernabeu. They famously overturned a deficit against Manchester City in 2022 after having lost the first leg 3-4. However, overturning a 0-3 deficit is going to be quite difficult, even for the most successful club in Europe.
Declan Rice did the unthinkable against Real Madrid
Rice scored with a couple of direct free-kicks in the second half. The 26-year-old English midfielder now has seven goals for the Gunners this season. However, Tuesday’s brace was probably the highlight of his career so far. Rice bent each of the free-kicks perfectly to reach the left corner of the Real Madrid goal.
Not since David Beckham’s direct free-kick against Greece in 2001, which helped England qualify for the World Cup next year, free-kicks of such massive importance have been scored on the English soil. Beating Real Madrid in the knock-out rounds automatically makes a team favorite in Champions League.
Reaching the last four will make the Gunners believe that they can win the whole thing. This is why Rice’s free-kicks could turn out to be season-defining ones for Mikel Arteta’s men. The fact that Mikel Merino, another player who keeps enhancing his reputation, scored his eighth goal of the season to compound Real’s misery, broadened the smile on Arteta’s face.
Rice himself has had a slightly less impressive season so far than the previous one. His signing cost Arsenal 100 million GBP, which is a club record. Since then, he has been one of the pivotal players for the Gunners.
Arsenal will have the almost impossible dream of a double
Arteta’s men trail Liverpool by a whopping 11 points in Premier League with seven matches to go. However, Liverpool are having a somewhat poor run at the moment, and the staunch supporters of the Gunners will have a belief that the Reds will keep dropping points.
Arsenal have a showdown with Liverpool left, which means that they can wipe off three of those 11 points by winning that match. In addition to that, the hope of a first-ever Champions League title-triumph will also be sprouting in their minds.
However, Arsenal still have a long way to go to win a double, but the mere thought of it did not probably exist in the wildest dreams of the Gunners’ supporters even a month back. It will still not happen probably, but Arsenal have certainly done enough to put themselves in a position to strive for it.
Rice deserves a huge credit for making it possible. Merino is not to be forgotten, too. Those two have probably done enough to knock Real out of the competition. The Spanish giants can still upset a lot of plans in the second leg at home, but the chances of it remains very slim, even considering their huge reputation.
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