Declan Rice‘s two fantastic free kicks and a striker’s finish from Mikel Merino gave Arsenal an emphatic 3-0 victory over Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.
The hosts had the better of the first half as Real began slowly, though they were indebted to Thibault Courtois’ superb double-save on the stroke of half-time to keep the game level.
However, Rice broke the deadlock in the 58th minute with his first senior goal from a direct free kick, an unstoppable shot around the wall and beyond Courtois, before he followed it up with an even better strike 12 minutes later.
Merino then coolly fired into the bottom corner 15 minutes from time to give Arsenal a sizeable lead to take to Madrid next week. Real were reduced to 10 men late on when Eduardo Camavinga was shown a second yellow card.
