Jude Bellingham reveals one thing Arsenal did that surprised Real Madrid in Champions League loss

Jude Bellingham has admitted that Declan Rice's free-kick double was the only thing that surprised Real Madrid in their 3-0 Champions League defeat to Arsenal. All square at 0-0 at the break, the Gunners took the lead just before the hour mark with Rice curling in an unstoppable free-kick beyond Thibaut Courtois.

The midfielder then added a second free-kick 12 minutes later as he arrowed a powerful drive into the top corner of the Real Madrid shot-stopper's goal. Rice has demonstrated his quality over a dead ball a number of times since joining Arsenal from West Ham but he has never really had the opportunity to showcase his free-kick prowess with others usually standing over the ball.

Speaking ahead of the second leg tie between the sides in Spain, Bellingham revealed that he had never seen his England teammate produce something like that with free-kicks before.

"Not really no… I think the free kicks were surprising," admitted Bellingham (via TNT Sports). "I've not seen Dec do that before! I knew he could take set pieces really well with corners and stuff but I’d never seen him do that with the free kicks. So, fair play to him, that was probably the only thing [that surprised Real].

"We knew they were a really good team. We knew they had a really good manager and would be really organised, but nothing that we didn’t expect, they are a top level team."

Despite the 3-0 deficit going into the second leg, Real Madrid will be attempting to complete another Champions League masterclass in coming from behind to advance. The Spanish side are certainly confident they can do that, with Bellingham and his teammates realising on the coach back from the Emirates Stadium that they are very much still in the competition and can spring another surprise.

"It was tough moments after the game. You have to do the press, you are sitting alone where you do think it’s going to difficult, it’s going to be tough, but the more you get speaking to the other lads and how confident they are, the more it rubs off on you," said the England international.

"The lads that have experienced nights like this before, it rubs off and it’s infectious. It makes you a lot more confident about the situation you are in and the people you are going into the situation with.

"For us it was pretty much immediate, by the time we were getting back on the coach, we were all – not in good spirits obviously – but realised we could still be in the competition."

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Arsenal face Real Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final on April 16.

The game will be broadcast live on TNT Sports, which costs £30.99 on a rolling monthly basis via the Discovery+ Prime Video channel and also includes the Europa League and Conference League.

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