Wayne Rooney has pointed the finger at Declan Rice for his role in PSG’s winner against Arsenal in the Champions League.
The Gunners were beaten 1-0 in their semi-final first leg on Tuesday night.
Ousmane Dembele netted his 25th goal of 2025 after three minutes and 20 seconds and that proved to be enough.
The French international found himself in acres of space inside the Arsenal penalty box and his first-time left-footed strike went in off of David Raya’s far post.
During Amazon Prime’s post-match analysis of the goal, Manchester United legend Rooney was quick to identify Rice’s positioning as fatal.
Rooney praised PSG for their swift attacking play but thinks Rice made “the wrong decision” to mark support Jurrien Timber against Khvicha Kvaratskhelia over marking Dembele.
“This is a really good pass, breaks the lines and then Dembele gets the ball, gets driving at the Arsenal defence and then plays it out wide,” Rooney began.
“Now Arsenal have enough time to recover and Declan Rice just makes the wrong decision. He comes in, he thinks he is trying to cover his teammate but by leaving that space at the edge of the box, that’s where the danger is, that’s where Dembele is.
“It’s in the quarter-final, semi-final, final of the Champions League, the details of what you’re talking about, that’s what wins or loses you the competition and today Arsenal just didn’t get a lot of the details right and that’s what cost them the game.”
Daniel Sturridge defended the former West Ham captain, noting that Mikel Merino ran back into an area in the penalty box rather than defending Dembele.
He said: “I don’t look at that goal and say it’s Declan Rice’s fault.
“On the other side, Merino makes a defensive run back, he ran into a position, he doesn’t run towards the ball. He makes the run back, if you look where Dembele is now…Merino is tracking back to the penalty spot, he’s not gone towards the ball to effect what’s going to happen. The cut-back is there.
“Rice is going over to help, so if my mate is going over to help in the other position, he’s (Merino) just worried about getting back into position, he’s not worried about where the ball can be played.”
Meanwhile, PSG boss Luis Enrique said Tuesday’s win in north London showed everyone “the kind of team we are”.
He said: “I think emotions are at that level in those kind of matches so it’s difficult to analyse. Great atmosphere but we showed the kind of team we are. We tried to play our way and scored the goal early playing the way we play. We suffered sometimes but could have scored the second goal. The second match is going to be very tough.
“That’s the work of a goalkeeper, no? Save the team, they work everyday for that. in a semi-final, you need all the players.
“I think it’s not important in that moment when you feel that energy. We need to prepare for the second match, it’s going to be difficult. The result means a little advantage for us. We are going to suffer, we know that. I think we can go to the final but there is still one match.”