Declan Rice stunned Real Madrid with two brilliant free-kicks in Arsenal’s Champions League quarter-final clash at the Emirates and Thibaut Courtois has now offered his thoughts
Thibaut Courtois admits he was to blame for Real Madrid’s Arsenal nightmare after failing to deal with two stunning Declan Rice free kicks. The Gunners secured a brilliant first-leg win at the Emirates on Tuesday evening.
England midfielder Rice fired home two outstanding free-kicks in the second half, with Mikel Merino extending the lead even further. Mikel Arteta’s side now just need to avoid a three-goal defeat next week at the Bernabeu to seal their place in the semi-finals.
After being beaten by Rice on two occasions, Real goalkeeper Courtois has now spoken out and believes he should shoulder the blame for those two goals – albeit has bemoaned each free-kick being given away.
“I thought I’d positioned the wall well,” Courtois told Movistar. “I usually put an extra man in. I take responsibility for that, I could have put an extra man in, but I thought [Rice] wouldn’t get as much curl on it.
“And the second goal is a great goal. They were unnecessary fouls, when there was no danger. Perhaps we shouldn’t make those fouls.”
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Rice’s two efforts saw the Belgian goalkeeper’s worst fears come true. Courtois had already expressed his concern at how effective Arsenal were from set-pieces, albeit he had chosen to focus more on corners instead of free-kicks – something that has come back to bite him.
Speaking ahead of the game, the ex-Chelsea star said: “We’ve worked on it. We know how we have to try to defend against them. The first thing is not to concede too many corners.
“It’s a matter of concentration, activation – sometimes the quality of the opponent plays a factor too. If the ball arrives perfectly, it’s difficult to defend. But we are ready to do it, we believe that what we have prepared will work out well for us.”
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Rice’s two free kicks had actually seen the Arsenal midfielder completely ignore team orders. The Gunners’ set piece coach Nicolas Jover had told him to cross the ball, with Rice taking matters into his own hands – a decision that proved to be a genius call.
“We were saying to cross it,” Rice revealed. “When they [the defenders in the wall] were over a little bit we saw the space Bukayo [Saka] said if you feel it, go for it. I thought I’m going to take this.
“When you score a goal it’s the best feeling in the world. It didn’t make sense from that angle to cross the ball. It would have to be a delicate pass. And when I saw the wall. It didn’t make sense to cross. You know what, I’m happy I took it because it was magic.”
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