1 week Ago By James Goldman
Declan Rice produced a man of the match performance in Arsenal’s win over Real Madrid(Credits: Phil Hutchinson/UK Sports Pics Ltd)The Premier League will be guaranteed at least five teams in the 2025-26 Champions League edition following Arsenal’s stunning 3-0 win over Real Madrid.Two stunning free-kicks from Declan Rice and another sensational finish from Mikel Merino ensured the Gunners secured a convincing quarter-final first leg victory last night.The English top flight needed just one win from its clubs in any of the three European competitions to secure one of two extra berths – on top of the four granted to the top four in the table – awarded to the highest-ranked countries in the UEFA coefficient ranking.
In this system, teams earn two points for a win and one for a draw, adding up all the points obtained by each club and dividing by the number of clubs from that league participating in Europe.England could have up to seven teams in the upcoming Champions League if Aston Villa win this year’s edition without qualifying through the Premier League table, and if either Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur are crowned in the Europa League.Get personalised updates on Arsenal everydayWake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.Italy lead the race for the second additional place, with Spain and Germany trailing behind.Who will finish in the Premier League Top Five?Premier League leaders Liverpool and second-placed Arsenal look set to claim two of the five available berths, while Nottingham Forest look relatively secure in third with seven games of their campaign remaining.
Chelsea, Newcastle United, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Brighton, and 10th-place Bournemouth remain within eight points of each other.Eddie Howe’s Carabao Cup winners have a game in-hand over their rivals, but face a daunting run-in during which they are due to play most of their rivals for a top five place. The race for a top five finish in the Premier League will go down to the wire (Picture: Google)Declan Rice masterclass inspires Arsenal For Arsenal, meanwhile, their difficulties on the domestic front melted away last night after Rice’s deadball masterclass powered them to a landmark victory.
‘I’m speechless, this has never happened to me before!’ a beaming Rice said after the game. ‘This is the quarter-final and we know how much this night meant. It’s a real historic night for the club.
I’m so happy.‘They [his free-kicks] were really good. To be honest with you, I’m not used to all of this praise and media and just people saying how good the free-kicks were!Declan Rice scored two stupendous free-kicks against Real Madrid (Copyright: 2025 UEFA)‘I’ve seen them back a few times now but I think I’ll be up watching it all night.
It’s an incredible moment, I can’t believe it.‘As soon as I hit the first one and it went in, I thought ‘that’s my first ever free kick!’‘And then I just had the confidence over the second one. I just thought, ‘why not? What have I got to lose?’‘I was going to go over the wall and I thought: ‘I’ve got the keeper’s side, on a good one.
’ I’ve been practising that a lot.‘So, yeah, two went in and they’re just magic moments. They’re going to stay with me forever.
’Mikel Arteta knew Declan Rice had it in his lockerThibaut Courtois was powerless to stop Declan Rice(Credits: Isabel Infantes)Incredibly, Rice’s goals were the first two free-kicks he had scored in a senior professional career that is already in its ninth year, while Arsenal themselves hadn’t scored from that sort of scenario in nearly three years, a fact their manager was well aware of.Arteta said: ‘He’s been very determined because we have talked in the last few months that we haven’t scored a direct free-kick since September 2021, Burnley away, Martin Odegaard. ‘So it’s been a long time, and to score two goals in 12 minutes of that magnitude of that quality from the same player, a player that has never scored a free-kick before in his career, I mean, what are the odds? ‘He’s done it tonight.
I’m a big believer that the crowd played something with the energy that they put in and it helped us massively in the game.’.
