League Two side Fleetwood Town knocked Premier League champions Arsenal out of the Carabao Cup at Highbury Stadium on Tuesday (27 October), drawing 1-1 and then winning the shoot-out 5-3 to reach the quarter-finals. The tie kicked off at 4am Singapore time on Wednesday, and Fleetwood went into it 18th in League Two with 14 points from 13 games.
Loupalo-Bi strikes first
Mikel Arteta named a young side, with Illan Meslier making his Arsenal debut in goal and 17-year-old Marli Salmon in defence. The night stalled early when referee Michael Salisbury took the players off for eight minutes because a drone was flying over the ground.
When play resumed, Fleetwood found the opening. Fulham loanee Aaron Loupalo-Bi got beyond Salmon in the 21st minute, the defender’s late tackle only pushed the ball on, and Loupalo-Bi drilled his finish past Meslier. Fleetwood held that lead to half-time.
Gyokeres levels, Dowman sees red
Arteta sent on Martin Odegaard and Ben White at the break, and Arsenal were level early in the second half. Ceadach O’Neill gathered a long pass from Piero Hincapie and crossed, and Viktor Gyokeres held off Finley Potter before clipping the ball past Jay Lynch.
Arsenal then camped in the Fleetwood half. Kai Havertz had the best of the chances, but one shot struck defender Rhys Bennett on the head and looped over the bar. Arsenal finished with 78 per cent of the ball, 26 shots and seven on target, and Lynch denied White from close range in stoppage time.
Arsenal also finished with 10 men. Sixteen-year-old Max Dowman was sent off in the 85th minute for kicking out after a challenge from Harrison Neal, and Arteta had a stern word with him as he left the pitch.
Lynch wins the shoot-out
Fleetwood took Jake Batty off the shoot-out list to match Arsenal’s numbers. The first seven penalties all went in: Ronan Coughlan, Neal, Will Davies and Andy Cannon for Fleetwood, and Odegaard, Havertz and Gyokeres for Arsenal.
Lynch then dived to his left to keep out Bruno Guimaraes, and centre-back Conor Haughey stepped up and scored the winner. “My voice has gone! The whole team was magnificent, every one of them,” Lynch told Sky Sports afterwards. “It means so much to the whole town.”
What it means
The win extends a cup run in which Fleetwood beat Chesterfield, Shrewsbury and Sheffield United without conceding a goal. Fleetwood and Arsenal are three divisions apart, and the Carabao Cup’s official X account put it among the biggest upsets the competition has seen.
Fleetwood and Bradford City, who beat Peterborough United 2-0, are the first two clubs into the quarter-finals. The draw follows the remaining last-16 ties on Wednesday in England, with the quarter-finals to be played in the week starting 14 December. Arsenal go to Anfield to face Liverpool on Sunday (1 November).
