Arsenal hosted Crystal Palace in the quarter-finals of the English League Cup in the early morning of December 19 (Vietnam time). Surprisingly, it only took the visitors 4 minutes to open the scoring. Jean-Philippe Mateta received a long pass from Dean Henderson and finished with a tricky shot past David Raya.
In the following minutes, the Gunners created a lot of pressure. Leandro Trossard had at least 2 chances to score an equalizer but could not take advantage. The excellence of goalkeeper Henderson helped Palace enter the break with a 1-goal advantage.
In the second half, Martin Odegaard and William Saliba were brought on to replace Ethan Nwaneri and Thomas Partey. Immediately, this duo made a difference. In the 54th minute, from Odegaard's long pass, Jesus passed Trevoh Chalobah and scored the equalizer for the Emirates team.
Coach Mikel Arteta then brought on Bukayo Saka. It took the English midfielder less than 5 minutes to assist Jesus to make it 2-1.
Jesus completed his hat-trick after a counter-attack by Odegaard in the 81st minute. Crystal Palace did not give up and responded with a header from Nketiah in the 85th minute. However, they could not cause a surprise against the North London representative.
A 3-2 aggregate win puts Arsenal into the semi-finals of the EFL Cup. Their next opponents will be either Tottenham or Man United.
