Arsenal’s hopes of winning the FA Youth Cup have been ended at the semi-final stage as Manchester City secured a 2-2 draw at the Emirates that sees them progress 4-3 on aggregate.
The Gunners got off to the perfect start when Chris Willock opened the scoring on six minutes only for the visitors to net through Brahim Diaz and Rodney Kongolo before half-time.
Steve Gatting’s players, who were marshalled expertly all night by Krystian Bielik, rallied in the second half and found an equaliser through substitute Donyell Malen’s header, however, a red card for defender Marc Bola with 15 minutes left gave City the breathing space they needed to see out the game.
There was controversy in the dying moments when City keeper, Daniel Grimshaw, was only booked for handling outside the area and to rub salt in Arsenal wounds he produced a fine save to stop Ben Sheaf’s free-kick taking the game to extra time.
A disappointing night for the under-18s but they’ll have gained great experience playing at the Emirates.
Couldn’t believe it when the goalie only got a yellow card! I guess we suffer from refereeing decisions at all levels.
The boys did themselves proud though. Well done
Referee was so bad he made Dean look like Collina. All night long he was determined not to book any of their players or even give a free kick for the kicks, fouls and holding. Their keeper could easily have been booked for time wasting.
Can only guess he’s being paid in crude oil this month. Shocking.
The ref didnt spare the under 18s blatant cheating
Congrats and lots of talent on show. Let’s keep pump priming the first team by continuing the aquisitions strategy of top late teens.
The decision on the handball at the end was pretty ridiculous, but it didn’t honestly matter at that stage. Can’t let in two at home and expect to progress, we would have had to win 4-2 and that just wasn’t going to happen.
Yes you can glass half empty guy, we’d have had extra time.
Yeah, my bad. There’s no away goal rule apparently, so we only needed one more to take it to extra time.
In addition to the handball, I thought it was a definite free kick when Mavididi turn on the edge of their box. The red card looked nasty, but I thought it was more of an accidental collision than any malice.
Nelson looks like a talent. So does Bielik
Don’t know why it’s not being mentioned, but Arsenal ladies progressed in their FA Cup run! And their draw for the semis sees them play the Sunderland ladies instead of the Chelsea or Man City ladies. Still a positive night.
Why did we play Jeff in CM where he was largely ineffective? The whole stadium was saying ‘push him forward’ but Gatting sat on his hands.
Anyone got any commentary/impressions on some of the youngsters that stood out? Interested in what people think about Bielik, he’s a tall, lanky bastard and we don’t have enough of them
Yeah, I watched the game and thought Bielik really stood out. I would be surprised if he’s not in the 1st team squad next season. Great prospect, very calm, great positional sense, likes a tackle and they’re well timed too. Plus, he’s a big old lump, which is a bonus. “great feet for a big man”. Also thought Willock looked very good.
Cheers for the info Jeff