League Two Fleetwood knock Premier League champions Arsenal out of the Carabao Cup
Conor Haughey scored the deciding penalty as Fleetwood won a shootout 5-3 at Highbury Stadium to reach the League Cup quarter-finals for the first time.
Fleetwood Town are in the last eight of the Carabao Cup for the first time in their history after beating Arsenal on penalties at Highbury Stadium on Tuesday night.
The game ended 1-1 and Fleetwood, who are 19th in League Two, won the shootout 5-3. Their goalkeeper Jay Lynch saved from Bruno Guimarães, and 19-year-old centre-back Conor Haughey drove the final kick into the top corner.
Arsenal are the reigning Premier League champions and reached last season's Champions League final. BBC Sport counted 84 places between the two clubs in the English league pyramid.
How the night unfolded
The match had barely started when the referee, Michael Salisbury, stopped play because a drone was flying over the pitch. The players stood around for several minutes before it flew off and the game restarted.
Aaron Loupalo-Bi, on loan at Fleetwood from Fulham, scored in the 21st minute. He held off 17-year-old defender Marli Salmon and slid the ball under Illan Meslier, who was making his Arsenal debut.
Mikel Arteta had started Viktor Gyökeres and Kai Havertz in attack and sent on Martin Ødegaard at half-time. Arsenal improved after the break and Gyökeres bundled in an equaliser at the back post, his first goal of the season.
They could not find a winner. Max Dowman was sent off late in normal time after a clash with Harrison Neal, and Lynch kept out late efforts from Ben White and Ødegaard in stoppage time to force penalties.
Arteta told Sky Sports he could not fault his players' attitude, but said they had too many chances to let the tie go to a shootout.
Penalties with no practice
Fleetwood were a non-league club as recently as 2012. Their manager, Matt Lawlor, never played professionally and was not working as a football manager this time last year. He told Sky Sports the squad had not practised penalties once before the game, and that he had already reminded the players about Saturday's league fixture.
BBC Sport put the result alongside Grimsby Town's win over Manchester United in the same competition last season, when the League Two side went through 12-11 on penalties.
Who else is through
Bradford City joined Fleetwood in the quarter-finals. The League One side beat Peterborough United 2-0 at Valley Parade, with Macaulay Gillesphey heading in from a corner on 13 minutes and Adam Phillips adding a second midway through the second half. It is Bradford's best run in the competition since they reached the final in 2013.
Five more fourth-round ties are played tonight: Manchester City v Brighton, Bournemouth v Aston Villa, Fulham v Crystal Palace, Sunderland v Brentford and Liverpool v Chelsea. Everton host Newcastle on Thursday.
According to BBC Sport, the quarter-final draw will be made after the Liverpool game and shown live on Sky Sports. The quarter-finals will be played in the week starting 14 December.
