Declan Rice makes Arsenal vs PSG prediction as star slaps down Gunners criticism

Arsenal travel to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday for the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, with Declan Rice set to play a key role for the Gunners

Declan Rice believes Arsenal can start a glorious era of success by winning the Champions League. The England midfielder is convinced once Arsenal win one trophy then others will quickly follow and it is clear that Rice is utterly convinced they can overcome Paris Saint Germain.

Rice spoke with a genuine belief and confidence in his voice that, after seeing off Real Madrid last time, they can repeat it but it will also be just the start for his teammates. Gunners boss Mikel Arteta has worked wonders at the Emirates but only has one FA Cup to show for all his efforts in the past five-and-a-half years.

Arsenal have never won the biggest European trophy of all and Rice says lifting the Champions League would top everything else – and start a rush of trophies for the club.

Rice said: “Obviously, for the next few years going forward, I just want to help this club. We were so close the last few years to winning the Premier League, we were in the semi-final, now the Champions League.

“The next step for us is to win trophies. I sense that we’re close, but to get over the line, you have to win that first one. I feel like they’ll start coming in for sure. We have such a good group, but we need to keep believing and being positive.

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“We can go out there and we can achieve something great for this club and that’s what we want to do. We obviously know we’re 1-0 down but we have full belief, full positivity that we’re going to go out there and win tomorrow night.

“I think tomorrow night is going to be a really good game. And like I said, we’re really positive and have full belief. we can come here and do something special.”

Rice has clearly played in big semi finals before in his career, both with England and also West Ham on the way to them winning the Europa Conference League. This is a big step up in club terms but, for Rice, he will view it as just another game but with a huge desire to take the next step towards the biggest game of his life.

“Tomorrow night is just another game. It’s the semi-final of the Champions League, but I don’t put too much pressure on myself. It’s us versus them. We obviously know what we have to do to get to the final,” said Rice.

“I’ve played in semi-finals before and I was required to get to finals. Hopefully, tomorrow night as a group we can pull through and we can achieve something really, really good and make it a really special night for this club.”

Rice laughed off stories about TV clips picking up him allegedly saying: “If we don’t have the ball, we die” before the first leg with PSG. The French champions were outstanding at the Emirates but, despite their excellence, Rice insists Arsenal did not feel intimidated.

Rice added: “I actually didn’t say that. I don’t think I said that. I think it was something like… I don’t know how that came about. I read that after the game and I was like, I’m not sure I said that. And then obviously a big thing got made about it.

“I think the first 15 minutes, I think the early goal probably shocked us a little bit. And it took us probably 15, 20 minutes to get a foothold in the game. But once we started keeping the ball a little bit, we started to create some chances and obviously their keeper, Donnarumma, made some amazing saves.

“But I think you need to have full belief. We certainly have that as a group. The manager certainly drills that into us every single day. I think if we’re the best versions of ourselves tomorrow night, we know we can be that.”

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