Arsenal hammer Portsmouth to reach FA Cup quarter-finals
Arsenal scored either side of half-time to beat League One side Portsmouth 2-0 and reach the FA Cup quarter-finals on Monday night.
Pompey played well in the first half at Fratton Park but trailed to Sokratis Papastathopoulos’ volley from Reiss Nelson’s cross just before the break.
Into the draw for the next round! 💪
🔵 0-2 🟡 (FT)
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 2, 2020
Eddie Nketiah bundled home from close range to wrap up the victory six minutes after the restart.
Pompey’s only shot on target came in the second half, with substitute Ronan Curtis’ effort saved.
The other fifth-round ties are on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The quarter-final draw is on BBC One on Wednesday at 21:50 GMT after Sheffield Wednesday v Manchester City.
Arsenal came into this game on the back of their shock Europa League exit to Olympiakos on Thursday.
Manager Mikel Arteta – slightly surprisingly – made nine changes, with several fringe players starting, and defender Pablo Mari making his debut, despite this being their only hope of silverware. They are eight points off fourth-placed Chelsea in the Premier League.
They lost Lucas Torreira to injury in the first half, the midfielder taken off on a stretcher after a tough but fair sliding tackle by James Bolton.
That was their only negative from the game at Fratton Park though.
Bukayo Saka – one of the two to keep their place from Thursday’s defeat – forced a save and Gabriel Martinelli headed over the bar.
Sokratis opened the scoring with a wonderful volley from Nelson’s right-wing cross.
And Nketiah scored his third goal since returning from a loan spell at Leeds when he controlled another Nelson cross before rifling into the roof of the net from close range.
From that point on Arsenal looked comfortable – and extend their unbeaten run against Portsmouth to 22 games. They have not lost to Pompey since 1958.