Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta praised his team’s “beautiful” performance after they secured a dominant 3-0 win over Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday.
Declan Rice delivered two remarkable free-kicks, helping the Gunners take control in the second half.
Mikel Merino sealed the win with a third goal, finishing Myles Lewis-Skelly’s low cross, giving Arteta’s side a strong advantage heading into next week’s second leg.
Speaking to Amazon Prime, Arteta said:
“Beautiful. So happy, so proud of the team. We have the chance to make a lot of people proud, and we’ve definitely done that.
“I’ve never seen the stadium like this. Before the match, they were already singing and already playing the game.
“For these big European nights, you need big stadiums that create atmosphere, and you need individual moments of magic—and there it was.
“That’s the beauty of this sport, whoever invented it. We hadn’t scored a free-kick since September 2021, and tonight, against Real Madrid in the Champions League, we scored two in 13 minutes.”
