Saliba ‘so happy’ after stopping childhood friend and ‘best player in the world’ Mbappe from scoring in Arsenal’s win over Real Madrid | OneFootball

Arsenal defender William Saliba says beating Real Madrid and close friend Kylian Mbappe was one of the best nights of his career so far.

Rice scored from two direct free-kicks before Mikel Merino added a third as the Gunners thrashed Real Madrid 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium to take a huge advantage to the Santiago Bernabeu in the second leg in a week’s time.

Saliba started alongside Jakub Kiwior in the centre of defence with his usual defensive partner Gabriel ruled out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury.

The game also saw him come up against childhood friend Mbappe, with the two going to the same primary school together when they were younger.

And Saliba had says he enjoyed coming up against him though is not sure his fellow Frenchman felt the same.

“It was good for me because we won and he didn’t score,” he said.

“In a game like this you have to be focused. We did well and we have to do the same next week.

“We wanted to win today but of course we didn’t know we will win 3-0 at home but we wanted to win and we are so happy to score three goals today in front of our fans and to not concede.

“We are so proud because we know that they have the best player in the world so we are so happy to keep the clean sheet in front of our fans and we have to take it as a lesson to do it again next week.

“It’s one of the best (days of my career) and I hope it won’t be the last one.”

Saliba also admitted his surprise at seeing Rice score two spectacular free-kicks – the first the England midfielder has ever scored in his professional career.

“I didn’t know (he could do that),” Saliba said.

“It’s his first free-kick here so I didn’t know but today he scored two amazing goals so I’m so happy for him and I hope he can score again.

“We don’t score a lot of direct free-kicks and today he scored two in a big game like this so we are so proud of him.

“We are so happy with his performance. He was amazing today.”