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As Arsenal's set-piece coach, Nicolas Jover has been the mastermind behind the team's uptick in goals from dead-ball situations.
It seems like he cannot take any credit for Declan Rice's two amazing free kicks against Real Madrid.
Rice bent one around a defensive wall to put Arsenal in front and then whipped another free kick into the top corner a few minutes later, setting up a 3-0 win over Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals.
The England international revealed, however, that it might never have happened had he listened to Jover — the man credited with turning Arsenal into set-piece kings in the Premier League this season since joining from Manchester City's coaching staff.
“We were planning to cross the ball to the back post,” Rice said of his first goal, when asked why Jover was making a gesture to curl the ball while stood in the technical area as Rice and Bukayo Saka lined up the free kick. "He wanted us to reverse-cross it, but I stood with Bukayo and said, ‘It doesn’t feel right to cross the ball here.'
“I looked at the wall and at (Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut) Courtois, and I see that space for the right foot around the outside of the wall. And Bukayo said, ‘If you feel it, take it.’ I said, ‘You know what, I’m going for it.' If you don't take the risk, you don't score.”
Rice had never scored from a direct free kick in his previous 338 matches as a professional.
Indeed, the last time Arsenal scored intentionally from a direct free kick was in September 2021, when Martin Odegaard did so against Burnley.
“It's been a long time,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said. “So to score two goals in 12 minutes, of that magnitude, of that quality, from the same player — a player who has never scored a free kick before in his career ... What are the odds?”
The result put Arsenal on the brink of returning to the semifinals for the first time since 2009. The second leg is in Madrid next week.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
