Arsenal hosted Crystal Palace in the quarter-finals of the English League Cup in the early morning of December 19 (Vietnam time). It was quite surprising that the away team only took 4 minutes to open the score. Jean- Philippe Mateta received a long pass from Dean Henderson and finished dangerously to defeat 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 brilliance 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. The duo immediately made a difference. In the 54th minute, from a long pass from Odegaard, Jesus overcame Trevoh Chalobah and cushioned the ball to equalize for the Emirates team.
After that, coach Mikel Arteta continued to bring Bukayo Saka onto the field. It took the English midfielder less than 5 minutes to make an assist for Jesus to increase the score to 2-1.
At the end of his excellent performance in the second half, 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 make a surprise against the North Londoners.
The 3-2 victory took Arsenal to the semi-finals of the English League Cup. Their next opponents will be Tottenham or Man United.
