Interview

Raya: I always tell Rice to shoot more!

David Raya vs Real Madrid

David Raya had the perfect angle of Declan Rice’s stunning free-kicks against Real Madrid, and our goalkeeper revealed he has been encouraging our midfielder to shoot more from range.

Declan produced two sensational set-piece efforts in the second half before Mikel Merino gave us a 3-0 lead to take to Madrid next week.

It was the first time Declan has netted from a set piece and David claimed he has been pushing for the midfielder to unleash from distance since he joined the club from Brentford last summer.

"I don't think people realise what a strike he has and I’ve been telling him since I came to Arsenal to shoot more from outside the box because he has a hell of a strike and he showed it today," our Spanish stopper said.

"He needs to shoot more because he has a hell of a strike. He has a deadly weapon."

David was called into action during the first half, denying Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe with a smart save low to his left. Our goalkeeper believes it was a team performance of the highest order against the defending Champions League winners.

He said: "Great game, great performance from the team. From the first minute we dominated the game. We tried to keep them quiet, which is nearly impossible against this Real Madrid team where they can hurt you in any way.

"But we were there to defend, to keep a clean sheet, that was really, really important for us and we score the three goals that we needed to get going and I think we showed a great determination as a team, not just individuals, as a team."

It was a historical night in N5, but David knows the job isn’t done yet as we head to the Spanish capital, looking to preserve our lead and advance to the semi-finals of the competition for the first time in 16 years.

He said: "We were super convinced of what we were capable of and we showed it. From the first minute, the way we played, the way we dominated.

"It's not done yet. We did part of the job, but we have to go to again next week. It's a tough ground to go to and it's against one of the best teams in the world. So we never know what's going to happen.

"We’ve got a lot of things to improve as well because they created chances and we know if they score one goal that the tie is going to be there. But we have to do the same that we did today."