Declan Rice issued a warning to his Arsenal teammates about the importance of possession prior to their crucial Champions League match against PSG. Unfortunately, Arsenal failed to heed this warning, suffering an early goal that set the tone for their 1-0 loss in the first leg. Despite a strong comeback later in the match, where they held 55.4% possession, PSG's dominance early on proved pivotal. Arsenal faces an uphill battle in the return leg in Paris, with their performance needing to improve significantly to stay in contention.
Declan Rice captured the mood and flagged up the danger signals in his final message as Arsenal gathered in a huddle before they faced the formidable challenge of Paris St-Germain.
If we don't have the ball, we die, Rice told his Arsenal team-mates as they finished their warm-up before the Champions League semi-final first leg at Emirates Stadium.
PSG had a total of 71.6% possession in the first 26 minutes, the period of the game in which they threw a bucket of ice cold water over what had been a white-hot environment.
Arsenal pulled it around, having 55.4% possession for the rest of the game, but Rice knew what was coming and PSG were simply too good to stop early on.
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