Arsenal had no doubts about silencing Real Madrid – Declan Rice

Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has claimed the team knew they were going to silence Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu after an historical Wednesday night.

Rice and his team mates arrived in Spain with a 3-0 advantage from the first leg of their quarter-final tie, despite the pressure that comes with playing Real Madrid at home, Arsenal secured a 2-1 win on the night and a 5-1 triumph on aggregate.

Just like he did in the first leg, Rice repeated his man-of-the-match performance and led the team to a landmark result in club history.

Speaking after the match, Rice revealed that the belief within the squad was unwavering, regardless of the intimidating environment at the Bernabeu.

Declan Rice gestures during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Quarter Final Second Leg match against Real Madrid C.F.(Photo By Oscar J. Barroso/Europa Press via Getty Images)

In a post-match interview with TNT Sports, Rice said: “I just think it’s such a special night for this club, a historic night for this club. We have an objective in this competition. We want to play the best teams, and we want to win this competition. There was a lot of talk coming here about them coming back, because they have done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game. We knew we were going to suffer. But we knew we were going to win. We did it in my mind, and then we did it in real life. What a night for the club.”

With Arsenal yet to win the Champions League in their long history, fans are optimistic things will be different this season.

Rice added: “I sensed it before I signed for the club that we were on an upward trajectory. I felt it, with the players we’ve got. It’s been tough in the Premier League this year. We lost out last year on a point, and this year it’s slipped away from us. But in this competition, we’ve done amazingly well. This club is going to do special things over the next few years. We all fully believe it. We all have full trust in this manager, he’s unbelievable, and we’ve got players like [Myles Lewis-Skelly] and Ethan [Nwaneri] coming through who really want it.”

Arsenal will now face Paris Saint-Germain in the final four. They are a familiar opponent as the Gunners defeated PSG 2-0 in the group stage earlier this season.

Despite their victory over the French giants in the group stage, Rice acknowledged PSG are a different animal now.

“Semi-finals is massive for us, and we just want to take tonight in,” he said. “PSG next, they’re an amazing team. We’ve played them once already. We feel they’re a different team from then. We’ve seen what they can do, but we also saw what [Aston] Villa did to them last night [Tuesday] — caused them a lot of problems.”