In one of the craziest soccer games ever, Arsenal beat Reading 7-5 at the Madejski Stadium on Tuesday advancing to the quarter finals of the League Cup. It was one of the most dramatic matches ever played in the history of the competition.
Arsenal were down 4-0 down to Reading after conceding four goals in the first 37 minutes of play. Reading looked very aggressive right from the start. For Reading, Jason Roberts, Mikele Leigertwood and Noel Hunt scored with Laurent Koscielny adding an own-goal.
Theo Walcott gave Arsenal a glimmer of hope by scoring a goal just before halftime. But that was not enough. Arsenal still had a monumental task ahead of them trailing 4-1.
Soon in the 64th minute of the second half, substitute Olivier Giroud scored another goal for Arsenal with a brilliant header making it 4-2.
In the 89th minute Koscielny must have heaved a sigh of relief when he scored with a header from a corner, somewhat compensating for his error in the first half. The score was 4-3 in the 89th minute before Theo Walcott made it 4-4 thus forcing the game into extra time. Arsenal fans went berserk watching their team's dramatic comeback.
Marouane Chamakh then scored another goal for Arsenal to make it 5-4 in extra time. Just when it seemed the comeback was complete, Pavel Pogrebnyak brought Reading back with a brilliant header to level the scores.
With the scores tied at 5-5, the game looked like going into a penalty shootout, before Walcott again popped up to complete a dramatic hat-trick in the final moments. Chamakh added an unbelievable seventh on the counterattack, as Arsene Wenger's side completed a remarkable victory.
Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, told Sky Sports: "You cannot play for Arsenal and give up, no matter what the score is. The players understood at halftime that they couldn't come out in the second half with the same performance. Give them credit, they responded very well."
Brian McDermott, the Reading manager and former Arsenal player, said letting Arsenal score the first goal in the final moments of the first half was the turning point in the game.
"We had to make sure we went in at 4-0 but we went in at 4-1 and I wasn't happy. I wasn't comfortable at 4-1, I don't know why, I just had that feeling. We will just have to take this on the chin though as a group and get on with our jobs."
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