Rio Ferdinand reserved special praise for two Arsenal stars after the Gunners brushed Real Madrid aside in the Champions League to book a semi-final clash with Paris Saint-Germain.
The Gunners took a 3-0 lead to the Bernabeu and left with a 5-1 aggregate win after goals from Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli secured victory in both games.
Saka had missed a penalty in the first half as his awful panenka was saved by Thibaut Courtois, before Real Madrid saw a spot-kick overturned following a five-minute VAR check.
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But Saka made up for his error just after the hour mark, dinking Mikel Merino’s through ball over Courtois, before Vinicius Junior pounced on a William Saliba error to give the hosts false hope.
Mikel Arteta’s side looked comfortable throughout and Martinelli put gloss on the performance by winning the game in injury time as he dashed in behind the Real Madrid from the halfway line before slotting the ball past Courtois.
There were superb individual performances from Arsenal players all over the pitch but Ferdinand picked out Myles Lewis-Skelly for praise after the game.
He said on TNT Sports: “I’m sorry, is Lewis-Skelly really 18? His date of birth is right, isn’t it? He looks so calm and so cool in and out of possession.
“Before the game he was on a call, just talking and chilling. He is special.”
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Ferdinand was also hugely impressed by Rice, who scored two sublime free-kicks in the first leg, and claimed the Man of the Match award again here to “put himself in another bracket”.
Ferdinand added: “You need games like this in your career. You need to get to places like this to be properly judged.
“He’s stood up against the holders of this trophy and he’s not just competed, he’s run the show, he’s run the show in both games.
“He’s put himself in another bracket, I think after these two games he’s in another bracket.”
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On Rice, Ally McCoist added: “Over the two games, he’s been the outstanding player on the pitch.
“He was monumental. He was the best player on the pitch in both games. His level of performance was quite magnificent.”
After the game, Rice said he and his teammates “knew we were going to win”.
“It’s such a special night for this club,” Rice said. “It’s a historic night for this club. We have an objective in this competition: We want to play the best teams and 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 that first leg that we could come here and win the game.
“We knew we were going to suffer but we knew we were going to win.”
