Arsenal star Declan Rice has admitted he's heartbroken after the Gunners crashed out of the Champions League at the hands of PSG on Wednesday night.
Despite a positive performance from the Gunners, they faltered in Europe yet again, as the north London club crashed out of the tournament following a 2-1 loss at the Parc des Princes.
Arsenal will be proud of their efforts in the competition this year, defeating Real Madrid in both legs of the last eight and reaching their first semi-final in the competition since 2009.
The trophy drought at the club has now been extended to five years, with their most recent silverware being their FA Cup success in 2020, courtesy of a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang brace.
Bukayo Saka and Arsenal looked dejected after their semi-final exitPAThis means that mega-money signing Rice is yet to lift a trophy for the club, but that doesn’t concern the 26-year-old, as he spoke to TNT Sports after their defeat on Wednesday night.
"In life in general, sometimes you have to lose a few in order to win, and you have to overcome some of these setbacks to mentally grow as a person, as a player and as a group," he said.
“We're going through that stage at the minute after a few losses in terms of losing out on the league and coming close in the Champions League in back-to-back years.
“We're growing as a team, as people, but we need to keep pushing and keep believing. This is why we play this sport, there are going to be setbacks along the way.”
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Declan Rice has had a stellar Champions League campaign this year
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Rice, who joined Arsenal for a club-record £105million from boyhood club West Ham in July 2023, has been one of the stand-out performers in the Champions League this season and has justified his price tag to the world.
The demolition of reigning champions Real Madrid 3-0 at the Emirates, in which Rice scored two breathtaking free-kicks, was the stand-out game for the England international.
He would then back this up with another man of the match display at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, as they ran out 2-1 victors following goals from Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli to crush the La Liga giants 5-1 on aggregate.
Despite Arsenal falling short in Wednesday’s game, Rice looked for the positives in the performance, saying: "It’s gutting, such a dominant start, if you score one of them chances probably in the first 15 or 20 minutes, then the game completely changes. It’s just the small margins in football.
“Two mistakes from us, two goals for them. With the chances we missed, it just felt like it wasn’t meant to be.
“PSG have obviously gone through tonight, we're absolutely gutted but this isn’t going to define us for sure. On another night we maybe score two or three, it was just that first 20 minutes where they score and we don't take our chances and it’s a real kick in the teeth.
“We’ll assess it, we'll be back. Three games left, it's been a really long season, we really, really wanted this one, but we keep pushing because this is why we play this sport. We want to win and do the best we can."
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Gabriel, who missed Wednesday's game through injury, consoles Declan RicePAThe star also touched upon the struggles of Arsenal’s injuries this year, with forwards Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka missing large parts of the season, although the latter has returned to action over recent weeks.
In defence, Arsenal are currently without starting centre-back Gabriel, who has been a real threat from set pieces. Ben White has also recently returned from a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
"It's tough, we've done the whole season without five or six of our best players and to be where we are and do what we've done has been unbelievable. I fully stand by that”, Rice continued.
“In the end, the group of players who have gone out there have given it absolutely everything, the whole squad has, even the players that flew over with us tonight that have been injured, every staff member.
“Everyone fully believed and I think you could see that from the first whistle, how much we believed we could win and go out there and put on a performance.”
If Rice maintains this level of performance, and with additions to the forward line, there is little doubt that Arsenal could be much more of a threat on a domestic and European level.
