Hat-trick hero Gabriel Jesus was the star of the show, with the help of the instant impact of substitutes Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka, as we came from behind to beat Crystal Palace 3-2 and reach the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
Jean-Philippe Mateta’s early opener gave Palace the lead, but Jesus levelled the scoring with a cool lob early in the second half. The Brazilian then put us ahead with a powerful strike into the bottom left corner, and Odegaard sent him on the counter-attack to secure our third of the night.
Hale End Academy graduate Eddie Nketiah made sure of a nervy ending for us when he headed past David Raya with five minutes to go.
It took just four minutes for the visitors to open the scoring when Mateta got on the end of a long ball over the top from Dean Henderson and muscled off Jakub Kiwior before picking out the bottom right corner on his left foot.
We hoped to respond courtesy of a Leandro Trossard corner, which came out to Jesus on the right of the 18-yard box, but his shot towards the bottom left corner was too soft to trouble Henderson.
Palace gave the ball away moments later and Raheem Sterling found Trossard, who fired over the bar first time.
Ismaila Sarr’s shot was then deflected but Raya still made the save with Palace looking for a second, before Eberechi Eze tried to catch out our goalkeeper with a shot towards goal from almost the halfway line, but it sailed over the bar.
Trossard continued to look like one of our most likely attacking outlets, beating Caleb Kporha on the left and winning a free-kick that was ultimately punched clear by Henderson.
We came close to an equaliser when Jesus was fouled on the edge of the area by Maxence Lacroix, with Sterling curling towards the top left corner from the set-piece. Henderson was on hand again though to deny us, pushing the shot over the bar.
Mikel Merino headed wide of the post from another Trossard corner and we went into the half-time break a goal behind.
At half-time, Odegaard and William Saliba came on to replace Ethan Nwaneri and Thomas Partey, and it didn’t take long for our club captain to make an impact.
After Sterling had a close-range effort saved by Henderson and saw the follow-up hit the crossbar thanks to a brilliant cross from Kieran Tierney, and Mikel Merino struck just wide of the bottom right from distance, it was Odegaard with the incisive through ball for our equaliser.
Emirates Stadium was rocking as Jesus found himself on the receiving end of the threaded pass and took the ball past Trevoh Chalobah before chipping it over Henderson - a clinical, composed finish from our number nine.
Lacroix and Jefferson Lerma both had a go from long-range as Palace looked to restore their lead, the former shooting over the bar and the latter failing to put enough power on his shot to beat Raya.
Lacroix then denied us a second at the other end, blocking the shot after Trossard had found Jesus, who poked the ball towards goal and into the side netting.
Myles Lewis-Skelly came on to replace an injured Tierney in the 69th minute, and Saka was also introduced in place of Sterling.
Merino shot straight at Henderson but it once again didn’t take long for one of our substitutes to make their mark on the game as Saka cleverly found Jesus, who smashed it home for 2-1.
Wrapping up an outstanding second half performance, Jesus then slotted home his hat-trick when Odegaard sent him clean through on goal on the counter-attack.
But it wasn't game over yet, as former Gunner Nketiah got on the end of a Nathaniel Clyne cross to head past Raya for 3-2 in the 85th minute as Kiwior then made way for Gabriel.
Raya punched away a dangerous Palace corner in the fifth minute of added time and we held on to advance to the final four.
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