Sometimes you just have to follow your gut.
Declan Rice was the hero as his two magnificent free-kicks played a pivotal role in Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
Gunners fans would have been forgiven had they raised an eyebrow when they saw Rice stand over the ball for the first of his free-kicks.
After all, he had not scored from a direct free-kick in a single one of his previous 338 matches for West Ham and Arsenal.
It seemed even the Gunners’ set-piece guru Nicolas Jover wasn’t convinced by Rice taking a shot at goal as the midfielder revealed what the Spaniard had in mind instead.
But a quick conversation with Bukayo Saka left Rice convinced there was only one option for the free-kick and it wasn’t what Jover had drawn up.
“We were planning on crossing the ball, but I spoke to Bukayo [Saka] and he said to me, ‘If you’re feeling it, take it,’” Rice said on Amazon Prime.
“I saw the wall and the keeper and it didn’t make sense to cross it.
“Nicolas Jover kept telling me to cross it but Bukayo told me to take it.
“I took and control and I told ‘B’, ‘I’m going to hit this.’”
And hit it Rice did.
The 26-year-old powered a stunning curled effort past the fingertips of a sprawling Thibaut Courtois to put the Gunners ahead in the 58th minute.
Having not scored a single direct free-kick in nearly 340 games, Rice would net from a dead-ball scenario yet again just 12 minutes later.
The second was perhaps more special than the first, too.
This time, Rice belted another curled free-kick into the top right corner that left Courtois with no chance.
Even Gunners captain Martin Odegaard could not believe what he saw.
Odegaard, who lined up for the free-kick alongside Rice, simply stood with his hands on his head in utter disbelief before he raced away to join in on the celebrations.
Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe was another who could only admire Rice’s handiwork.
The French forward had his hands on his hips and shrugged as he cut a bemused figure.
Mikel Merino rounded out the scoring in the 78th minute when he swept home from Myles Lewis-Skelly‘s pass inside the box.
With a three-goal cushion, the Gunners now have one foot in the Champions League semi-finals.
However, the tie is far from over given Madrid have missed out on the Champions League semi-finals just twice in the last 15 years.
The second leg takes place at the Santiago Bernabeu on April 16.
