![\"Crystal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0023ab4d-614.jpg\"\/)
\nMaxence Lacroix scores an own goal<\/p>\n
Arsenal secured their place in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup after a marathon 8-7 sudden-death penalty shoot-out victory over Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n
Arsenal dominated the first half – with second-choice Palace goalkeeper Walter Benitez delivering a string of fine saves – but the last-eight tie at the Emirates Stadium hung in the balance after the interval following an improved performance by the visitors.<\/p>\n
The home side made the breakthrough when Palace were unable to clear Bukayo Saka’s corner before Maxence Lacroix put the ball through his own net with 10 minutes left.<\/p>\n
However, Palace sensationally struck back in the fifth of nine added minutes after Marc Guehi swept home Jefferson Lerma’s brilliant header from Adam Wharton’s set-piece.<\/p>\n
With both teams clinically scoring their first seven spot-kicks, William Saliba put his side one clear before Lacroix saw his effort saved by Kepa Arrizabalaga.<\/p>\n
Arsenal will now take on Chelsea for a place in the Wembley showpiece with the first of two legs to be played at Stamford Bridge on 14 January before the return fixture at the Emirates on 3 February.<\/p>\n
Noni Madueke, one of eight changes by Mikel Arteta, might have had four goals but for an inspired display from Benitez.<\/p>\n
Inside three minutes, Madueke’s left-footed shot was tame, and straight down Benitez’s throat. Then midway through the opening period Madueke’s prod goalwards was diverted away from danger by Benitez.<\/p>\n
\nMaxence Lacroix scores an own goal<\/p>\n
Three minutes later Benitez pulled off a fine double save from Gabriel Jesus’ header – the Brazilian making his first start in 345 days – and Madueke’s follow-up.<\/p>\n
And with five minutes of the opening period remaining, Benitez denied Madueke again with a fine reaction save after the Arsenal man’s strike flew through a host of Palace bodies.<\/p>\n
It was all Arsenal – the hosts enjoying 80 per cent possession – but they were unable to find a breakthrough before the first half drew to a close.<\/p>\n
Adam Wharton’s long-range effort fizzed just wide on the hour mark and with the visitors were in the ascendancy, and sniffing a shock, both Saka and Martin Odegaard were called into action by Arteta with Madueke and former Palace man Eberechi Eze, ineffective on the night, making way.<\/p>\n
Involved immediately, Odegaard’s cross was met by Jesus but his header fell just wide before a six-minute delay followed as defender Chris Richards was removed on a stretcher with an injury to his right ankle. A chance fell to Jesus on the restart but he blazed over.<\/p>\n
At the other end, a last-gasp sliding tackle from Saliba thwarted Jean-Philippe Mateta as he was set to pull the trigger, and then Kepa cleared off the line from the resulting corner with an outstretched right knee.<\/p>\n
Arsenal raced down the other end with a free-flowing counter-attack only for Martinez to tip Jesus’ shot over. Riccardo Calafiori’s header from Saka’s ensuing corner was blocked, and so was Jurrien Timber’s effort, but a toe-poke from Lacroix ended up in the Palace net.<\/p>\n
But there would be more drama to come when Guehi was able to divert Lerma’s header through Kepa’s legs in the 95th minute.<\/p>\n
In the 12th minute of stoppage time, Benitez denied substitute Declan Rice to send the tie to a shootout, but it was Kepa who would prove to be the hero when he saved from Lacroix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal secured their place in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup after a marathon 8-7 sudden-death penalty shoot-out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-207628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}