Declan Rice has Arsenal followers believing they will conquer Europe after Real Madrid heroics

Declan Rice has left Arsenal fans dreaming they can finally conquer Europe as the midfielder scored two incredible free-kicks as the Emirates witnessed its greatest ever night

Declan Rice helped marmalise Real Madrid with two moments of pure magic at the Emirates.

To gift Arsenal the best night their stadium has ever seen. Rice’s brace of sublime free kicks in the second half handed Arsenal a huge advantage from this Champions League quarter-final, first leg.

Few knew the England midfielder could produce such dead ball brilliance. But no-one supporting Arsenal cared.

And when Mikel Merino notched a third with 15 minutes remaining, delirious home fans were left believing Arsenal can actually go on and conquer Europe for the first time in their history.

On a night Mikel Arteta had described as the biggest of his career, the Spaniard led his side to the greatest win of his life. And for this he had Rice to thank, because his two strikes in 12 mad minutes will live long in the memory of those who witnessed them.

Arteta told home fans to bring the noise – and they did. His decision to field a weakened team at Fulham last weekend was him waving the white flag when it comes to the title scrap. And this piled even more pressure on him to get a result here.

But Arsenal looked bang up for the challenge and the first half went by in a flash, with chances coming and going at both ends.

Antonio Rüdiger almost sliced Bukayo Saka’s cross into his own goal, while Thomas Partey shot straight at Thibaut Courtois.

Saka was causing Real all kinds of problems down the right, and flashed two crosses across the face of goal, with no-one there to touch either of them in. Courtois then produced a fine double save to deny Rice and Gabriel Martinelli.

Arsenal should have scored. Sound familiar?

In fact, their four shots on target was their most without scoring in the opening 45 minutes of a Champions League knockout game on record.

Real also had their moments at the opposite end, with Vinícius Júnior shooting wide twice. And Jude Bellingham, who had been anonymous, sent Kylian Mbappe clean through with one sublime pass, but the Frenchman shot too close to David Raya.

It was fast, frantic and furious. But did Arsenal really believe they could go on and win the game?

They needed to give themselves a lead to take to the Spanish capital, where Real have been known to deal in miracles. But then Rice stepped forward to stun Real, who finished the game with 10 men following Eduardo Camavinga’s sending off.

Rice opened the scoring with a curling effort around the wall and past Courtois, to fire Arsenal ahead. Roberto Carlos, who knew a thing or two about bending free kicks into the goal, was looking on from the sidelines and would have been proud of the strike himself.

Real had Courtois to thank again for keeping them in the game, when he produced a stunning triple save to keep out efforts from Martinelli and Merino twice.

Real were rocking. And there was nothing Courtois could do to stop another fantastic free kick from Rice crashing past him to make it 2-0.

When Merino made it 3-0, both sets of fans appeared to be in a state of shock, for very different reasons.

Arteta will know Real are still capable of special things in this competition. But it will take something extraordinary to stop Arsenal from booting the kings of Europe off their throne.