Granit Xhaka sends 3-word message to Arsenal stars after 2-1 win against Real Madrid in Champions League

Former Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka sent a congratulatory message to the Gunners after their quarter-final win over Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League (UCL). Mikel Arteta’s side registered a handsome 5-1 aggregate win over Los Blancos to book a UCL semi-final spot.

Taking to Instagram soon after the full-time whistle in the second leg at Santiago Bernabeu, Xhaka posted a story for his former club. The Swiss star posted a photo of the full-time score and wrote:

“Congrats boys. Deserved.”

The Player of the match in both the legs, Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice, also commented on the win after the match. He said on TNT Sport (via Football London):

“It’s such a special and historic night for this club. We want to win this competition. There was a lot of talk coming here about them coming back because they’ve done it so many times before, but we had so much belief and confidence from the first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.

“The semi-finals are massive for us. We want to take tonight in because we want to take it one step at a time. It’s PSG next who are an amazing team. We’ve played PSG once already. We feel they are a different team to back then. We’ve seen what they can do, but Aston Villa caused them a lot of problems.”

Rice scored a brace from freekicks, with Mikel Merino adding a third at the Emirates in the Gunners’ 3-0 first-leg win. Thy then won 2-1 on Wednesday, April 16, thanks to goals from Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli. Vinicius Jr scored Real Madrid’s only goal in the tie.

Mikel Arteta proud of Arsenal players after Real Madrid win

Mikel Arteta spoke to the media after the 5-1 aggregate win over Real Madrid and stated that he could not have been more proud of his players. He heaped praise on the Arsenal stars for showing character in both matches despite the injuries.

He said (via the Gunners’ official website):

“Not only because we’re in the semi-final for the third time in our history now, but also because of the way we did it. Not only because of the way we played, but also because of the circumstances, the amount of injuries we had. That shows the character of this team, of this club, and it’s a night to be very proud of.”

Arsenal will take on Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the UCL semi-final, with Inter Milan facing Barcelona in the other semi.

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Sripad is a veteran Sportskeeda football journalist, who has been with the company for around 9.5 years. His tryst with writing happened in class XI when he started penning blogs, and his foray into football was during the early 2000s, watching matches with his cousins.

Sripad has been a Chelsea fan through and through since the age of 9 and can watch their 2012 Champions League triumph on repeat. The undisputed ‘GOAT’ according to him is Lionel Messi and his favorite managers are Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson. Apart from popular European leagues, he also likes to follow other leagues like the MLS, Saudi Pro League, Eredivisie, and Liga MX.

Sripad believes in only using the right sources for his articles, and is an expert in understanding how to get the right quotes for each news to provide proper background information. His exploits have led him to become a popular figure in European Football and interviewing Premier League legends such as Alan Shearer, Shay Given, Paul Dickov, and John Barnes. His articles have been much revered amongst the football fraternity and have been shared by the likes of John Terry, Gary Lineker, and Declan Rice.

If given a chance to change a football rule, Sripad wants VAR to be fully automated and offside rules to be less stringent. When not working, he likes to watch past Formula 1 races and play FIFA.

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