Declan Rice has made his feelings for Ethan Nwaneri clear following the England Under-21s' 4-2 win over Portugal. The Arsenal wonderkid fired the Three Lions to glory on Monday night, netting his first goal for Lee Carsley's side.
Nwaneri made his debut for the England Under-21s in a 5-3 defeat to France a few days prior, coming off the bench in the final minutes of stoppage time. The 18-year-old was then thrown into the starting lineup against Portugal – and it didn't take him long to make an impact.
Hayden Hackney fired Carsley's side ahead inside the opening 10 minutes before Nwaneri doubled the lead moments later with a brilliant strike from outside the box. In the final quarter of an hour, Omari Hutchinson and Jaden Philogene added their names to the scoresheet.
After the game, Nwaneri marked the victory with a celebratory post on Instagram – which eclipsed 100,000 likes. Captioning a carousel of pictures from the clash, the teenager posted three lion emojis.
Hundreds of friends, colleagues and fans rushed to the comment section to congratulate him on his impressive performance, but a few messages from Rice, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Harvey Elliott stood out. The Arsenal duo posted red heart emojis, while the Liverpool ace Elliott said: "Young star [two fire emojis]."
Nwaneri will soon reunite with Rice and Lewis-Skelly at London Colney ahead of the end of season run-in. Arsenal will lock horns with Fulham at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night before facing Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday afternoon.
"I don't want to say that," said the Spaniard. "Today the frustration is that we haven't won the game. We know the urgency and we are obligated to win every single match if you want to have any chance of doing that. I don't think it is the right moment to talk about that."
Meanwhile, Rice said: "Like the manager said, we'll keep going until the end of the season. Liverpool have been amazing all year. We're Arsenal. We've been hit hard by injuries. We'll keep going and we'll be alright."
Then, a few days later, the Gunners will host Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal. Earlier this month, Arteta refused to back down in the Premier League title race despite having fallen behind Liverpool by some margin.
On being just five games away from European glory, Arteta said: "We have to value that and recognise it’s very difficult to do. Now we want to make the next step. It’s very difficult but we are capable to do it.
"It is important for us because we want to win - and to win, you have to go through the stages, and because the club needs it. We are a club that want to be the best and want to be competing with the best in the world.
"To do that you have to constantly be there. It’s very difficult but we’ve done it for two years in a row and we have the capacity and ability to do it even better."
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Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus with the Arsenal Therapy Dog Win during the Arsenal Men's team group shoot at London Colney on September 18, 2023
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