Rice reacts to his crucial moments at either end at Man Utd
Declan Rice admits that his goal-saving tackle pleased him more than his excellent strike in our 1-1 draw against Manchester United.
The midfielder cancelled out Bruno Fernandes’ opener to earn us a point at Old Trafford, but that was only secured thanks to his heroics at the other end of the pitch as his perfectly-executed tackle on Rasmus Hojlund prevented the United striker from putting his team back in the lead.
And when pressed about his favourite moment of his man-of-the-match display, Declan looked past his superb 20-yard curler at the Stretford End to select his key defensive play.
“Probably the tackle, just because of the state of the game,” he said. “It defines the small margins in football for me because it could have been a penalty and probably a red card for me if I didn’t react as quickly as I did.
“I made the tackle, and we go to the other end and nearly score. These are the margins in football, but for me, those tackles are equally as important as scoring goals. That was a big one today so I liked that.”
Reflecting on the move that led to his goal, he described what was going through his head: “Just to hit it, be positive. [Jurrien Timber] rolled me a nice ball back. The space was on the other side of the goal where I finished it, so it was just about a nice clean connection, a nice sweep and just put my foot through the back of the ball, so I was happy with that goal. It’s always special to score for this club, it’s not a bad feeling.”
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Declan’s strike was a goal worthy of winning a game, but we return to north London with just a point for our efforts.
However the England man believes it was a fair reflection of the game between two old rivals, which could have gone either way at the end with David Raya required to make some excellent saves to keep us in the contest.
“We passed the ball really well, moved really well but just didn’t create enough, like we did in PSV on Tuesday night. It was nice having a lot of the ball and passing and moving and having that fluidity, but we didn’t have enough threat in the first half.
“In the second half we opened up a little bit more, had some more chances, but also on the other end of that, we were a bit naive in that last 10 minutes, doing stuff we’ve not done all season and could have easily thrown the game away. So there are two different spins on it for me, and probably a fair point in the end.
“David as well got the save at the end – two amazing saves, so, big credit to him as well.”
