Paris Saint-Germain withstood Arsenal’s early barrage of shots to book a spot in the Champions League final in Germany – and Declan Rice, a vital cog for the north Londoners, produced a brutally honest reflection of their two-legged performance in his post-match interview with TNT Sports.
With a one-goal deficit to overturn, Mikel Arteta’s men started aggressively and on the front foot – but their lack of potency came back to bite them as Fabian Ruiz’s left-footed volley shocked Arsenal to their core. Achraf Hakimi then made it 3-0 on aggregate.
A valiant effort, of course, Arsenal poster boy Bukayo Saka reduced the arrears in the 76th minute of regulation time – but the Englishman’s strike at the Parc des Princes, come the full-time whistle, turned out to be a mere consolation given the final score.
Rice Issues Honest Post-Match Interview
'It just felt like it wasn’t meant to be'
It’s now been five seasons since San Sebastian-born Arteta – widely regarded as one of the best managers in world football – won a trophy at the helm of Arsenal and Rice spoke about their toothlessness in front of goal as a reason why they fell short once again.
“It’s gutting. Such a dominant start, if you score one of those chances in the first 15–20 minutes, the game completely changes on its head and then, it’s the small margins in football. Two mistakes from us, two goals for them and with the chances we’d missed, it just felt like it wasn’t meant to be.”
“We gave it absolutely everything, this competition – you’re even in or you’re out and over the two legs, we could’ve scored three or four goals but [Gianluigi] Donnarumma has been unbelievable. And you’ve got to look at the small margins,” he continued.
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The reporter then stated that Arsenal had reached the quarter-finals in 2022/23 and the semi-finals this time around, before quizzing the English midfielder on what it would take for Arteta and Co. to win their first-ever Champions League. Rice said:
“In life, in general, you have to lose a few in order to win. You have to overcome some of these setbacks to mentally grow, as a player, a person, a group. And I think we’re going through that stage at the moment after a few losses in back-to-back years. We’re growing as a team, as people. We need to keep pushing and keep believing – this is why we play this sport. There’s going to be setbacks along the way, PSG have gone through tonight and we’re absolutely gutted but this isn’t going to define us.”
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Rice – widely regarded as one of the best players in world football – concluded by saying: “We’re going to be back and when get our players back, they’ve been out for a very long time, we’re going to be a much stronger outfit, so we’ve got to keep going.”
"In the end, the group of players that have gone out there have given it absolutely everything. Everyone fully believed [in us] and I think you could see that from the whistle. We'll assess it and we'll be back. It's been a long season and we really, really wanted this one. But, we'll keep pushing," Rice said.
Arsenal Fans Praise Rice’s Post-Match Interview
‘Dec has that leadership trait in him’
In response to Rice’s post-match thoughts, the Emirates Stadium faithful are adamant that the 26-year-old should be their skipper moving forwards. “That is our captain,” one said as another added: “He should be our captain, no one else!”
Arsenal’s current captain, Martin Odegaard, was caught in the crossfire as one slammed him for not fronting up to the media, thus leaving Rice to conduct the dressing room’s thoughts on the game. Labelling the latter as the ‘real captain’, they said:
“Our captain hiding in the dressing room again. Why doesn’t he come out to do these interviews? Xhaka was the real captain and when he left, Rice is now the real captain.”
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Highlighting the Englishman’s evident leadership qualities, a fourth supporter insisted that he should don the armband in the future. “This guy will captain this team soon. Not undermining Odegaard but Dec has that leadership trait in him.”