{"id":5127,"date":"2026-05-07T00:08:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T00:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=5127"},"modified":"2026-05-07T00:08:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T00:08:53","slug":"arsenal-saka-hints-at-preferred-cl-final-opponent-as-rice-takes-swipe-at-pl-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=5127","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal: Saka hints at preferred CL final opponent as Rice takes swipe at PL rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p>Bukayo Saka has hinted at who he wants Arsenal to face in the Champions League final, while Declan Rice has looked ahead to this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday night, <strong>Arsenal<\/strong> booked their place in this season\u2019s Champions League final, having beaten Atletico Madrid 2-1 over two legs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Of<\/strong> netted the winning goal for his boyhood club as they edged past Atletico Madrid, and they will now face Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich in the final.<\/p>\n<p>The England international refused to say whether he wants to face PSG or Bayern in the final, but he has hinted that his preference is Luis Enrique\u2019s side after Arsenal lost to them in last season\u2019s semi-final.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t ask me that!\u201d Saka responded to Richards when asked who he wanted Arsenal to face in the Champions League final.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:<span> <\/span>Four games in 25 days stand between Champions League finalists Arsenal and unfathomable glory<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know I\u2019ll have to give a media trained answer! You know deep down who we want to face, that\u2019s all I\u2019ll say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saka has also reflected on the obstacles he has overcome to reach this stage of his career after missing a penalty in the Euro 2020 final defeat against Italy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat moment after the game, only myself and a few other people that are close to me will understand what I\u2019ve been through in my career and the journey that I\u2019ve been on to reach this stage,\u201d Saka added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just wanted to say thank you to God in that moment, because God is what gets me through all of these things. Some players will not recover from certain situations I\u2019ve endured, but he\u2019s been my strength through it.<\/p>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0b629b85ba2abe5ff39df9829ee5fb57\" image-id=\"mcfcp7vAs0oe\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just happy to be here and proud of myself that I can stand here today and still be playing at the highest level and have the opportunity to play in the Champions League final.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<span> <\/span>Rooney, Shearer make same Arsenal claim in PL title prediction \u2013 \u2018I\u2019ve been strong on this\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>\u201cThey gave me a chance when Chelsea didn\u2019t\u2026\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>For now, Arsenal need to look ahead to Sunday\u2019s Premier League match against West Ham, with Declan Rice coming up against his former club.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding this game, Rice has spoken of his admiration for West Ham, but the same cannot be said for Chelsea after they released him as a teenager.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat club gave me everything, without West Ham there\u2019s no me,\u201d Rice said on facing West Ham this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI honestly believe that. They gave me a chance when Chelsea didn\u2019t. A lot of people there really pushed me on so it\u2019s not nice to see the position they\u2019re in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it\u2019s football and I\u2019ve got a job to do on Sunday. We\u2019re trying to win a Premier League title, we want to win every game and I\u2019m sure they will want to as well so let the best team win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: Simeone makes incredible Arsenal claim after Atletico Madrid are beaten<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End --><\/div>\n<p><script>\n        !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n        {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n        n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n        if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n        n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n        t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);\n        s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n        'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n        fbq('init', '1399787394855675');\n        fbq('track', 'PageView');\n    <\/script><script>\n        !function(e,n,t){var o=e.getElementsByTagName(n)(0);e.getElementById\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bukayo Saka has hinted at who he wants Arsenal to face in the Champions League&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}