Missed chances are “a real kick in the teeth,” says Declan Rice as Arsenal fail to reach Champions League final | OneFootball

Arsenal’s UEFA Champions League journey came to an end on Wednesday at the Parc des Princes, with the Gunners falling to a 2-1 defeat against Paris Saint-Germain on the night after suffering a 0-1 loss at the Emirates Stadium last week.

A stunning strike from Fabián Ruiz doubled PSG’s aggregate advantage before Achraf Hakimi picked out the bottom corner, rendering Bukayo Saka’s late strike as nothing more than a consolation for the travelling fans.

Speaking to TNT Sports post-match, Declan Rice expressed that the result is “gutting” for the Gunners and highlighted that “if you score one of those chances in the first 15-20 minutes, the game completely changes on its head. The small margins in football – two mistakes from us and two goals for them, and with the chances we’ve missed, it just felt like it wasn’t meant to be.”

“Over the two legs, we could have scored three or four goals to be honest with you, but [Gianluigi] Donnarumma has been unbelievable.”

“It’s just those first 20 minutes. Where they score, we obviously had those chances where we didn’t score. It was a real kick in the teeth, so we’ll assess it. We’ll be back, and we’ve got three games left [in the Premier League].”

But Rice was still optimistic in the wake of the defeat, pointing out that “in life in general, I think sometimes you have to lose a few in order to win. You have to overcome setbacks to mentally grow: grow as a person, as a player and as a group. I think we’re going through that stage at the minute after a few losses in terms of losing out in the league and coming close in the Champions League in back-to-back years.”

“We need to keep pushing and keep believing,” the England international explained, highlighting that “there’s going to be setbacks along the way. PSG have obviously gone through tonight and we’re absolutely gutted but this isn’t going to define us, for sure. We’re going to be back, we’ll get our players back who have been out for a very long time and we’re going to be a much stronger outfit.”

He continued: “We’ve done the whole season without five or six of our best players so to be where we are and to do what we’ve done has been unbelievable. I fully stand by that. In the end, the group of players that 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 [and] every staff member.”