LONDON: Kepa Arrizabalaga was Arsenal’s League Cup quarter-closing hero with the decisive penalty shoot-out set apart that carried out a depressing evening for Crystal Palace defender Maxence Lacroix on Tuesday.
Lacroix’s have aim place Arsenal forward with 10 minutes left at the Emirates Stadium sooner than Marc Guehi snatched Palace’s stoppage-time equaliser within the 1-1 diagram.
That space the stage for a shoot-out in which each and every teams scored their first seven penalties.
William Saliba transformed Arsenal’s eighth kick and Kepa dived to his lawful to set apart Lacroix’s effort and net an 8-7 victory.
It was a cathartic moment for the Spanish goalkeeper, who infamously refused to be substituted sooner than Chelsea’s League Cup closing penalty shoot-out defeat in opposition to Manchester Metropolis in 2019.
Kepa also missed a space-kick within the Blues’ 2022 League Cup closing shoot-out loss to Liverpool.
The Gunners will play London rivals Chelsea within the semi-finals over two legs in January and February, with Manchester Metropolis facing holders Newcastle within the opposite final four clash.
“We generated a lot and should have scored many more goals. When you don’t close the games, it can always happen that you concede,” Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta acknowledged.
“We had some big individual performances. Kepa, his level of commitment with the group is just incredible.
“I have the avid gamers had been so calm with the penalties and within the cease, Kepa managed to set apart one. We are where we desire to be.”
Arsenal are into the League Cup semi-finals for a second successive year as they chase their first trophy since winning the FA Cup in 2020.
The north Londoners have only won the League Cup twice, with their last triumph coming in 1992-93, before any of their current squad were born.
After celebrating Christmas on Thursday, Arteta’s men will turn their attention back to the title race with home games against Brighton and third-placed Aston Villa to close out 2025.
Winning their first English title since 2004 is clearly Arsenal’s main aim this season, but lifting the League Cup in March would be a significant boost to a club starved of silverware in recent years.
Arteta made eight changes to the side that won at Everton on Saturday, but still fielded a strong line-up featuring William Saliba, Mikel Merino, Eberechi Eze, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus.
Jesus, who ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in January, started for the first time in 345 days after returning to action as a substitute against Club Brugge earlier this month.
– Kepa redemption –
Noni Madueke, another of Arteta’s changes, should have put Arsenal ahead early on but he was twice denied by Palace ‘keeper Walter Benitez, who produced an inspired performance.
Benitez plunged to his left to keep out Jesus’s close-range header with another fine save and repelled another blast from Madueke.
By the time Jurrien Timber headed wastefully over from 10 yards, Arteta must have been wondering if Arsenal would ever make the breakthrough.
Arteta sent on Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard in the second half, the latter making an immediate impact with a cross that Jesus nodded narrowly wide.
Arsenal finally broke the stalemate in the 80th minute.
Not for the first time this season, it was a Gunners set-piece that did the damage as Saka’s corner caused chaos and Lacroix, under pressure from Saliba, poked past Benitez as he tried to clear.
But Palace gave Arsenal a taste of their own set-piece medicine, equalising with their first shot on target in the 95th minute.
Adam Wharton’s free-kick was headed down by Jefferson Lerma and Guehi slotted home from close range.
After a host of nerveless penalties in the shoot-out, Kepa ended as Arsenal’s saviour.
