\n<\/p>\n
Brighton are through to the Women’s FA Cup semi-finals after upsetting 14-time winners Arsenal at Meadow Park.<\/b><\/p>\n
Madison Haley put the Seagulls in front three minutes after half-time as she latched on to Fran Kirby’s through-ball and stretched to finish superbly into the top corner.<\/p>\n
The lead was doubled on 63 minutes when Caitlin Hayes rose highest to meet Kirby’s corner and send a looping header past Arsenal goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar.<\/p>\n
Arsenal pushed to get back into the tie but the visitors held firm to reach the last four of the competition for the fourth time.<\/p>\n
It was another disappointing exit for the Gunners, who last lifted the trophy in 2016.<\/p>\n
They had come into the match in confident mood after booking their place in the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday by beating Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Manager Renee Slegers made six changes to the starting line-up, no doubt with those midweek exertions in mind, but it was Brighton who started stronger.<\/p>\n
Jelena Cankovic nearly put Dario Vidosic’s side in front inside two minutes with a powerful drive that was tipped over the bar by Van Domselaar, before Charlie Rule had an effort cleared off the line from the resulting corner.<\/p>\n
Arsenal gradually grew into the game and it took a brilliant save from Brighton keeper Chiamaka Nnadozie to keep out Smilla Holmberg’s shot from point-blank range after half an hour.<\/p>\n
Brighton weathered the storm and American striker Haley’s fine finish put them in front.<\/p>\n
Rather than sit back, they pushed for a second with substitute Carla Camacho having a low shot saved.<\/p>\n
Slegers turned to her bench just before the hour mark, sending on Alessia Russo, Olivia Smith and Frida Maanum.<\/p>\n
But just five minutes later, Brighton doubled their lead as Hayes nodded in at the far post.<\/p>\n
They defended solidly after that and were rarely troubled by a Gunners side that looked weary.<\/p>\n
While Brighton are dreaming of a first FA Cup final, Wembley appearance and major trophy, Arsenal must regroup before focus switches to attempting to retain their Champions League title after the international break.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Brighton are through to the Women’s FA Cup semi-finals after upsetting 14-time winners Arsenal at Meadow Park. Madison Haley put the Seagulls in front three minutes after half-time as she latched on to Fran Kirby’s through-ball and stretched to finish superbly into the top corner. The lead was doubled on 63 minutes when Caitlin Hayes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}