Micah Goes CRAZY Over Rice Rockets! - Declan Rice Interview After Arsenal Victory! - UCL Today.

As I think the interview that we all hope for on this evening is, of course, Declan Ryan. Declan! Declan! Talk to me! What a performance, eh? I can't, I can't, Mike, I can't describe it. Honestly, I don't think it's going to hit me what I've done tonight. Two free kicks in a quarterfinal home against Real Madrid. It's special. I'm so happy. Probably the best moment in my career, for sure. Thierry's holding the trophy that he's won probably a hundred times in his career. My first one, so I'm obviously buzzing. They already gave it to him and I just wanted to make the gesture because of the game tonight. Guys, I'm just going to go in, if you'll allow me. First and foremost, the game that you had, it was crazy the way you played. But you looked like you played the game because you wanted to prove a point. I don't know to who, to your teammates, the fans or some people, I don't know what, but you were possessed tonight. Yeah, I don't know. I think in these big games, I always try to step up. I just thought, go out there and have no fear. What have you got to lose? It's a game of football against Real Madrid. If you're going to have fear, good things aren't going to happen. We really believed as a team that we could win tonight. I went out there every time we had the ball. We tried to be a threat. I tried to run with it as much as I can. Constantly trying to threat. I probably should have had two in the first half. I didn't run. I could have had a tap-in, the head up and then obviously scored the two goals. I just went out there. I was fearless and I was ready, like you said, to prove a point. Yeah, we did that. Do you remember when was the last time Arsenal scored a free-kick, a direct free-kick? Burnley away, Martin, Odegaard maybe. Yeah, but when was that? 2020, 2021, four or five years ago. Exactly. You said you wanted to do well, but you are doing well and doing what you did. You know what? I'm going to let Micah in because I had Micah on the phone this morning and he said to me, if you allow me, Micah. Of course. He said to me, I want to do something about Declan Rice because I think he is special in that team. So, Micah, you can go. Basically, in the number six, I think you're fantastic. But in the number eight, I think you're world-class because the way you travel with the ball, so athletic, the tackles, the through balls, absolutely everything. So, what I wanted to ask you, how do you find moving it from the number six into a number eight position? Yeah, I've loved it. Like you said, I feel like I've got the ability to play number eight and produce goals, produce numbers. It's about having that self-belief, that self-confidence. When I first came here, I was playing six a lot last year, then moved into eight at the back end of the season and then had a conversation with the manager at the start of the season. He said, you can feel like you can do way more for us. You're so athletic, you're so strong. You make really good runs into the box. You can score goals, left foot, right foot. It gives me the confidence to play there. In these games, when they stretch and they open up, it suits me to a T. I love just getting the ball and travelling with it and trying to make things happen for my teammates. Yeah, I think the number eight position is really suing me at the minute. Declan, now that we've spoken about the fact that... Sorry, just very quickly, because we've obviously introduced the fact that Micah did the analysis pre-game about you. I can tell you there was nobody who was more Team Declan tonight than Micah. We want to show you his reaction to your goals. Take a look at this. I'm going to tell you about my man, Declan Rice, making them runs into the box. Lovely little header, but it's a great save from Couture. That's why he is the best. Micah absolutely desperate for Declan Rice to do well tonight after his analysis in the pre-game. Can I tell you? It's in the form of his life! Declan, what a guy! I love you so much! I appreciate that. You manifested it and it happened, so we can't ask for much more. Exactly. I just wanted to ask Declan something. The first free kick. I'm in the stand and I'm thinking, is it Odegaard taking it? And then I see that Bukayo comes and you're coming. I'm thinking, Thibaut Courtois, really? You put four men on the wall and you leave that space for a right footer? What did you think at that particular moment? Because I thought the wall wasn't placed well. I thought he was going to put five. Because if you have two men on the ball, you have to put five. Before all this was happening, our set-piece coach was planning to cross the ball back post. That's why he was doing that? He was doing that. He wanted us to reverse cross it to the back post. When did you think of shooting? I stood with Bukayo and I said, it doesn't feel right to cross the ball here. I looked at the wall and I looked at Courtois. I see that space for the right foot around the outside of the wall. Bukayo said, if you feel it, take it. I said, you know what, I'm going for it. If you don't take the risk, you don't score. As soon as it left my foot, I knew it had a chance. It's one of those historic moments. That's more than a chance. He's taking the credit. He was at that ball in the second post. He ain't taking the credit for that. We talked about the first one. There was more of a think about it and you have it. But the second one, I think it surprised us all. You can have ten goalkeepers. I don't know how many walls you want. I think this part of my game gets questioned in terms of my ability with ball striking and scoring goals. I know I can produce these kind of moments. It's just about doing it more and more. As soon as it left my foot, I just knew. I had the confidence after the first one. You know what I like with the technique is that you whipped it so hard early. You didn't let your leg go so much. You held it a bit. When I practice these freekicks quite a lot, what I tend to notice is that when I make the contact and I look up quick, it's not the strike I want. When I look down on the ball and just focus on the ball and know the spot I want to put it, I tend to have more consistency with it. Obviously, that's a one-in-a-moment. It doesn't matter. We don't need to know that. I've been practicing it and it's come off. To be honest with you, it won't hit me what I've obviously done. Sorry, Thierry. I just wanted to ask you a question. Every time I hear you interviewed, you speak about getting more goals. It's funny because I almost feel like I defend you about that. When I think of great midfield players in the past, like Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, we never judge those players on goals. But the way the game's become now because it's so stacked, and we're part of this as pundits, it's almost like Declan Rice cost £100 million, so he's got to get more goals. Whereas for me, you're just an all-round midfield player who wants to score goals and score two great free kicks. Does that play on your mind a bit, this thing that I have to score goals? Because for me, great midfield players of the past were never judged like that. Yeah, 100%. I think as I've got older, I think when I was younger it probably played on my mind a little bit. But then I've realised as I've got older that none of that matters. It's just about me going out there and playing consistently well, and I've just tried to do that over and over again. Obviously, I'm always going to have my critics, my doubters, that's football, but as long as I can keep producing on the pitch and playing well and doing well for this club, that's the main thing. There's always so much talk and noise around all of that conversation, and I know you back me up, so I appreciate it. There's no doubters at CBS, Declan, I can assure you. Hey, Jamie, let him relax. He's got to go, we need him for the second leg. Good to see you guys. See you later. See you. Well done, brilliant effort. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, Declan. TT, stick with us, you're staying around, aren't you?