star Declan Rice has expressed his delight at scoring two superb free-kicks to hand the Gunners a 3-0 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final first-leg.

After a tight first-half, the north Londoners controlled the contest after half-time before going ahead through Rice. The midfielder

Rice stepped up and thumped the ball into the top corner to make it 2-0. Before Tuesday night's brace, Rice had never scored directly from a free-kick throughout his entire career.

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but the man of the moment was Rice with his spectacular free-kick double. However, despite never scoring a free-kick, Rice revealed it's something he's able to do.

Speaking immediately after the game, Rice said: "That's been the message from the manager since the game at the weekend, that we need to be convinced that we can come and win this game.

"As a group of players, we were convinced we were out there, together as a team, fighting for each other and in the second-half we knew we had to score. To score three is a real positive."

Asked about his free-kicks, he added: "It's been in the locker! I've hit the wall too many times or it's gone over the bar. Originally we were going to cross it and then I saw the wall and the goalkeeper's position and thought, for the first one, 'just go for it'.

"The second one, I just had the confidence and just hit it. It's not going to hit me yet because there's another leg to go. I'm over the moon but in a few years time, it'll really hit me."

He added on his first goal: "When they were over, I saw the space around the wall and looked at the keeper and that's why we lined-up with three at the back [post] because we were going to cross it.

"Bukayo said, 'if you feel it', and I went, 'I'm going to take this', and just hit it. It's one of those moments."