League Two’s Fleetwood Town knock champions Arsenal out of Carabao Cup on penalties
Fourth-tier Fleetwood Town held Arsenal 1-1 at Highbury Stadium and won the shootout 5-3 to reach the League Cup quarter-finals for the first time.
Fleetwood Town, who sit 18th in League Two, knocked Premier League champions Arsenal out of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, 27 October, winning a fourth-round penalty shootout 5-3 after a 1-1 draw at their Highbury Stadium. The result, described by ESPN as one of the biggest upsets in the competition’s 66-year history, sends the Lancashire club into the League Cup quarter-finals for the first time.
How the match unfolded
Fleetwood went ahead in the 21st minute through Aaron Loupalo-Bi, a striker on loan from Fulham. Arsenal, who had left out Declan Rice, Gabriel and goalkeeper David Raya, sent on captain Martin Odegaard at half-time, and Viktor Gyokeres levelled in the 50th minute with his first goal of the season, ESPN reported.
The visitors pressed for a winner but Fleetwood goalkeeper Jay Lynch kept out efforts from Ben White and Odegaard late on. Arsenal’s task grew harder five minutes from the end when 16-year-old Max Dowman was sent off for kicking out at an opponent after a heavy challenge, leaving them with ten men, according to an Associated Press report carried by AsiaOne. Early in the game, play had also been halted for about eight minutes because a drone was hovering over the ground.
The shootout
Fleetwood converted all five of their spot-kicks. Arsenal’s only miss came from Bruno Guimaraes, whose effort was saved by Lynch, and teenage defender Conor Haughey then scored the decisive penalty. It was a second straight shootout defeat for Arsenal, who lost the Champions League final to Paris Saint-Germain on penalties five months ago.
A night of firsts
According to ESPN, no reigning English champion had previously been eliminated from the League Cup by a fourth-tier side. Fleetwood are 84 places below Arsenal in the English football pyramid and were the lowest-ranked club left in the competition. Arsenal have now lost their last two League Cup ties against fourth-tier opponents, the previous one being a shootout defeat to Bradford City in 2012-13.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta called it a really sad day for the club and said the defeat was not down to a lack of effort, but that his side had fallen short in other areas. Fleetwood manager Matt Lawlor described it as the biggest night in the club’s history, while Lynch said his team had drawn inspiration from Grimsby Town’s League Cup win over Manchester United last season.
What comes next
Fleetwood go into Wednesday’s quarter-final draw alongside third-tier Bradford City, who beat Peterborough 2-0, as the two lower-league survivors. The remaining last-16 ties are Manchester City v Brighton, Liverpool v Chelsea, Bournemouth v Aston Villa, Fulham v Crystal Palace and Sunderland v Brentford on Wednesday, followed by Everton v Newcastle on Thursday. Fleetwood return to league action on Saturday, while Arsenal turn their attention back to their Premier League title defence.
Sources
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