WHAT HAPPENED
Folarin Balogun struck twice as our under-23s fought back to draw 3-3 with Manchester United on Saturday.
Cedric, William Saliba, Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe were all named in the starting XI, with the latter playing his first minutes since picking up a shoulder injury in August.
The visitors took the lead inside three minute when Arnau Puigmal fired into the top corner from a free-kick on the edge of the area.
Nelson equalised through another free-kick, sneakily firing in at the near post with a dipping effort, but just five minutes after the restart, Puigmal grabbed his second, converting the rebound from a missed penalty.
It was three just moments later when Joe Hugill reacted first inside the area to fire past Karl Hein from a set-piece, but we didn’t give up and we were rewarded for our positive mindset.
Latching on to a loose pass on the halfway line, Nelson set Willock free down the left wing and the latter picked out Balogun inside the area, who battled with two defenders before poking the ball into the bottom corner.
The 19-year-old looked sharp all afternoon and in the 70th minute he completed our comeback, coolly finding the bottom right corner after being teed up by Ben Cottrell.
There was late drama as Alex Kirk was dismissed for a second yellow card, but we held on for the final 15 minutes to secure a share of the spoils.
WHAT IT MEANS
WHAT’S NEXT
Up next, we will face Manchester City in the Premier League 2 on Saturday, October 24.
The game will take place at the Manchester City Academy Stadium with kick-off at 1pm (UK time).
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
