Arsenal<\/a> through by the skin of their teeth.<\/p>\n\u201cWe conceded the goal and it was emotionally tough to accept after the way the game went,\u201d said a relieved Arteta. \u201cBut I think the margin should have been much bigger. That should have been three or four and then you\u2019re not worried about what happens in the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the two sides it was Arsenal who had fared better from Palace\u2019s request to reschedule this game because of their European commitments, with Arteta able to make eight changes to the team who held their nerve in the win away at Everton on Saturday night. But just like last year at this stage against Palace, it needed the arrival of big guns Martin \u00d8degaard and Bukayo Saka after half-time to finally find the breakthrough before Gu\u00e9hi\u2019s late equaliser.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m delighted with the second-half performance today, especially after the first-half performance, it was really bad,\u201d said Glasner. \u201cFor us it\u2019s important to build on the second-half performance and also show great character again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marc Gu\u00e9hi slides home an equaliser in the 95th minute to take the quarter-final to penalties. Photograph: Alex Pantling\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Palace manager admitted in the buildup that he had no choice but to select virtually an identical side to the one who were hammered by Leeds on Saturday night, although teenager Jaydee Canvot started in an unfamiliar role at right wingback and was given a torrid time by Gabriel Martinelli. To underline just how hectic things have been for Palace, this was Gu\u00e9hi\u2019s 31st start of the campaign already for club and country. By contrast, Gabriel Jesus has had to wait 345 days for his first since suffering an ACL injury against Manchester United in January. The timing of that was particularly cruel given that the Brazil striker had been on a hot run of form that was kickstarted by his hat-trick against Palace in this competition. It was apt that he should bring up a century of appearances for Arsenal against the same opponents.<\/p>\n
The jury is still very much out on Arsenal\u2019s \u00a364m signing Viktor Gy\u00f6keres so Jesus must have sensed an opportunity to impress and would have capped his performance with a goal had it not been for Ben\u00edtez.<\/p>\n
A free signing from PSV Eindhoven in the summer, the Argentine has had to play second fiddle to Dean Henderson but he showed he is a more than able deputy. He was called into action in the third minute when Martinelli set up Noni Madueke, although the England forward could only shoot weakly. Tyrick Mitchell fired over after a brilliant pass around the corner from Jean-Philippe Mateta but that was as close as Palace would come in the first half as Arsenal cranked up the pressure.<\/p>\n
Martinelli was off target when they failed to clear a corner before Madueke forced Ben\u00edtez into another save. Not for the last time, Canvot was left for dead by Martinelli when he delivered a cross on to the forehead of Jesus but again the Palace goalkeeper was up to the task. Only a last-ditch clearance from Richards denied Jesus another sight of goal as Arsenal kept knocking on the door with an onslaught of long throws and set pieces.<\/p>\n
Walter Ben\u00edtez concedes an own goal scored by Crystal Palace\u2019s Maxence Lacroix. Photograph: Adrian Dennis\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Palace conceded four against Leeds but were somehow able to stand firm until half-time thanks to some heroic defending and Arsenal\u2019s wastefulness. It was no surprise to see Canvot hooked for the vastly more experienced Nathaniel Clyne. Palace immediately looked more competitive and began the second half with renewed belief. There was a long delay when Richards was carried off after trying to challenge Jesus for a header that went inches wide, which will be of major concern for Palace given their busy schedule. He ended up watching the penalty shootout on crutches but the American\u2019s departure was the precursor to a dramatic finale.<\/p>\n
Arsenal needed William Saliba to slide in and take the ball off Mateta\u2019s toe before the resulting corner was blocked on the line. At the other end, Ben\u00edtez saved yet again from Jesus and the ball was eventually deflected past the despairing goalkeeper off Lacroix\u2019s toe after more pinball in the box. Palace looked totally deflated but somehow found a way back when Gu\u00e9hi tapped in after Jefferson Lerma won a header from Adam Wharton\u2019s free-kick. Declan Rice could have won it even later but was once again denied by Ben\u00edtez, with even more drama reserved for an epic shootout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This competition may not be Mikel Arteta or Oliver Glasner\u2019s top priority this season but that didn\u2019t stop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-332422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}