- Arsenal beat Real Madrid 3-0 in their Champions League quarter-final first leg tie
- William Saliba grew up in the same Paris neighbourhood as Kylian Mbappe
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William Saliba insists that Arsenal ‘are not scared’ of Real Madrid and that Mikel Arteta’s side will not look to park the bus at the Santiago Bernabeu next week.
Arsenal will take a three-goal advantage into the second leg of the quarter-final as they look to reach a first Champions League semi-final since 2009.
‘We are not scared. We want to go there, win the game again and get the job done. We won 3-0 but we know that it’s not finished,’ said Saliba.
‘In the Champions League, there are a lot of things that can happen so we have to go there and win and not defend all game,’ the 24-year-old added.
Saliba admitted that even he and his team-mates were surprised by the quality of Declan Rice’s free-kicks, after the England midfielder scored two past Thibaut Courtois.
‘I don’t see that (in training). It was the first time I’ve seen a good free-kick of Dec,’ said Saliba. ‘We don’t score a lot of direct free-kicks but I’m so happy for him and I hope he will score again. We are so happy with his performance. He was amazing.’
William Saliba admitted Arsenal have only finished half the job but is backing his side to go the the Bernabeu and win
Saliba and Kylian Mbappe grew up in the same neighbourhood and the former was coached by the latter’s father as a youth
Mbappe, meanwhile, was quick to stress that there was still every chance of a comeback
And the French centre-half stressed that Arsenal must be on top of their game in Spain next week because of the quality that Real Madrid possess, with Kylian Mbappe insisting post-match that the comeback is still possible.
Saliba grew up in the same suburb as Mbappe in Paris and the pair went to primary school together, with Saliba also coached by Mbappe’s father.
‘It was good for me because we won and he (Mbappe) didn’t score but against a player like him, you have to be focussed all the time. We did well and need to do the same next week,’ said Saliba.
‘We are so proud because we know they have the best attacking players in the world so we’re so happy to get the clean sheet too.’
Asked if it was the best night of his career so far, Saliba admitted that it was ‘one of the best’ and ‘hopefully not the last one’ but that it was undoubtedly his and Arsenal’s greatest night at the Emirates Stadium, since the club moved there in 2006.
‘Yeah, it was incredible,’ he said. ‘To win a quarter-final like this against Madrid is amazing and now we have to do it again next week. It (the win) gives us a lot of confidence for what’s next.’
