Wesley Sneijder has played down the skill involved in Declan Rice’s free-kicks against Real Madrid, claiming that Thibaut Courtois made it ‘very easy’ for the Arsenal midfielder to score.
After a goalless first half, Rice opened the scoring for Mikel Arteta’s side in the 58th minute with a right-footed free-kick which curled around the Madrid wall to beat Courtois.
Rice doubled Arsenal’s lead with another free-kick in the 70th minute, this time his effort from 25 yards out was whipped into the top corner with Courtois getting nowhere near it.
Mikel Merino’s excellent finish completed Arsenal’s 3-0 win, which gives Arsenal a commanding advantage to take into the Champions League quarter-final second leg next Wednesday.
After his side’s win, Arteta described Rice’s free-kicks as ‘two magic moments’, however, former Madrid, Ajax, Inter and Netherlands midfielder Sneijder was not blown away by Rice’s goals and feels Courtois is to blame for both goals.
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‘That wall wasn’t positioned properly for that first goal,’ Sneijder said during his analysis for Ziggo Sport.
‘He [Courtois] assumes that [Bukayo] Saka will take it, he is a left-footer. Then he can move the wall a bit more to the right, so that he can take his own corner.
‘A right-footed player should never be able to shoot around the wall from that angle. That’s not allowed.
‘It seems a bit crazy what I’m going to say now. This seems very difficult, but for a right-footed player this is very easy.
‘If you have a good strike then this is a very easy ball. When you are on the pitch, you see that the ball has to go around the wall on that side. The wall was too far to the left.’
Former Arsenal defender Giovanni van Bronckhorst added: ‘I think Wesley is right.
‘The wall is too far to the right and he can shoot it past it. It’s easy to shoot a ball like that.’
The debate then turned to Rice’s second free-kick, with Marco van Basten saying: ‘This is just a beauty. There’s not much you can do about that.’
But Sneijder also had an issue with Rice’s second effort.
‘I would like to make a side note here,’ the former midfielder said.
‘This one is quite far. If you watch the replay, you see Courtois take a step to the right. As a result, he has no chance in his own corner. That’s because of the uncertainty of that first goal. He hops up, no chance, bye, then you’re gone. If he stands in his own corner and trusts his wall, he’ll save it.’
Sneijder also believes the manner of Madrid’s defeat having conceded from two free-kicks would have hurt his former side.
‘Certainly because of the way in which it happened,’ Sneijder said.
‘You haven’t really been that much worse than Arsenal. You’re actually 2-0 behind because of two great free-kicks. That’s sour.
‘If you’ve been completely outplayed now, you’re at peace with that 3-0 and you’ll do everything you can next week. But there was no better tonight. It wasn’t much either.’
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