Declan Rice insists Arsenal will achieve “special things” in the next few years with “unbelievable” manager Mikel Arteta at the helm.
The Gunners on Wednesday beat Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate to reach their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.
Rice picked up the man of the match award at the Santiago Bernabeu, just as he did in last week’s first leg at the Emirates Stadium, in which he scored two remarkable free-kicks in a 3-0 win at the Emirates.
Goals from Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, either side of a Vinicius Jr. consolation, set up a semi-final tie against Paris Saint-Germain, who are many people’s favourites to win the competition.
Reacting on the pitch afterwards, Rice said: “I just think it’s such a special night for this club, a historic night for this club. We have an objective in this competition. We want to play the best teams and we want to win this competition.
This club is going to do special things over the next few years. We all fully believe it. We all have full trust in this manager, he’s unbelievable
“There was a lot of talk coming here about them coming back, because they have done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.
“We knew we were going to suffer. But we knew we were going to win. We did it in my mind, and then we did it in real life. What a night for the club.”
Arsenal are poised to finish as runners-up in the Premier League for the third straight season, which has prompted some difficult questions for Arteta over recent weeks and months. Arsenal’s hopes of silverware this season now rest on being crowned champions of Europe.
Rice added: “I sensed it before I signed for the club that we were on an upward trajectory. I felt it, with the players we’ve got.
“It’s been tough in the Premier League this year. We lost out last year on a point and this year it’s slipped away from us. But in this competition, we’ve done amazingly well.
“This club is going to do special things over the next few years. We all fully believe it. We all have full trust in this manager, he’s unbelievable, and we’ve got players like [Myles Lewis-Skelly] and Ethan [Nwaneri] coming through who really want it.
“Semi-finals is massive for us, and we just want to take tonight in. PSG next, they’re an amazing team. We’ve played them once already. We feel they’re a different team from then. We’ve seen what they can do, but we also saw what [Aston] Villa did to them last night [Tuesday] — caused them a lot of problems.”
Lewis-Skelly, 18, said reflected on his first experience of playing at the Bernabeu, Real’s famous home ground.
“It was incredible, honestly. When you see it on TV, it’s a lot different to when you come live. When I first walked out, it’s a lot. But you just have to take in the moment and have fun.
“The fans don’t make it easy for us, but as a team we knew if we stuck together and kept backing each other through the highs and lows we’d be fine.”
