Bold claim: Mikel Arteta said after the semi-final defeat to PSG that Arsenal had been the best team in this season’s Champions League
Arsenal Football Newsletter
Declan Rice was the sole Arsenal representative named in the official Champions League Team of the Season dominated by winners Paris Saint-Germain.
England midfielder Rice was pivotal to the Gunners’ memorable run to the semi-finals of Europe’s elite club competition this term, starting all but two of their 13 matches and scoring four goals along with providing two assists.
After efforts against Dinamo Zagreb during the league phase and in the last-16 second leg against PSV Eindhoven, unquestionably Rice’s most memorable moments in this season’s Champions League - and indeed of his Arsenal career to date - came in the quarter-final opener at home to Real Madrid, when he
After finishing third in the inaugural league phase and thrashing PSV, Arsenal would go on to win that last-eight tie 5-1 on aggregate after a 2-1 triumph at the Bernabeu, though could not find a way past PSG as they went down 1-0 at home in the semi-final first leg before losing 2-1 away.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta attracted headlines after his side’s spirited comeback attempt in Paris by suggesting that they had been the best team in the Champions League this season, a claim he said had been supported by PSG’s own bench.
However, UEFA’s Technical Observer Group evidently do not share that opinion, with Rice the only Arsenal player named in the Champions League Team of the Season revealed on Sunday.
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There are seven PSG stars in total included after their historic 5-0 rout of Inter Milan in Saturday’s one-sided final in Munich that saw them finally claim their most coveted prize and complete a trophy treble, with man-of-the-match Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele in the forward line.
Doue and Dembele were also named as Champions League Young Player of the Season and Player of the Season respectively, with the latter backed for the Ballon d’Or award by manager Luis Enrique.
They are joined by midfield maestro Vitinha, plus full-backs Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, captain Marquinhos and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Barcelona have two inclusions in attacking pair Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, the joint-top scorer in this season’s Champions League, while the defence is completed by Inter’s only representative in Italy centre-back Alessandro Bastoni.