14yo debut goal & a winger in net as Arsenal u18s draw with Fulham | OneFootball

Arsenal played out a dramatic draw with Fulham on Saturday, involving a red card, a goalscorer ending up in goal, and a 14-year-old scoring a late debut equaliser.

Photo by Lewis Storey/Getty Images

Arsenal’s draw with Fulham on Saturday certainly had plenty of twists and turns, but it started out well as Louis Zecevic-John scored after rounding the goalkeeper in the 16th minute.

Fulham turned things around through goals by Anand Batra and Brodie Dair in the second half, and they looked certain to pick up all three points after Arsenal goalkeeper Remi Lupinski was shown a straight red for making a save with his hands outside the penalty area.

Arsenal had already used all of their substitution breaks, so winger and goalscorer Zecevic-John was forced to go in goal with 10 minutes of normal time still to play.

Photo via Munoz on Instagram

The Gunners managed to hold on at 2-1 until injury time, and 14-year-old Luis Munoz scored a dramatic equaliser in the 93rd minute after cutting in from the right and firing into the top-left corner.

Munoz had only been introduced for his u18 Premier League debut moments prior to the Lupinski red card, and he must have thought his chances of a positive debut had taken a major hit after that dismissal.

Instead, he ended up becoming Arsenal’s second-youngest u18 goalscorer since 2008, with Jeorge Bird reporting for Arsenal Youth that over the last 18 years, only Ethan Nwaneri was younger when he scored his first u18 goal.

That Nwaneri goal against Reading also came under unusual circumstances, as both teams effectively agreed to name u16 teams on the day, for various reasons. Munoz had no such advantage, playing a full-strength game for a team with 10 men, so his goal deserves to be in the same conversation.

Arsenal u18 lineup vs Fulham

Lupinski, Marciniak, Mbala, Pedro, Stachow, Yetna, Thompson, Nwaneri, Zecevic John, Sampang, Nduka

Substitutes

B. Phillips (for Nwaneri, 62), Purdy (for Nduka, 62), Abubakar (for Mbala, 71), Munoz (for Sampang, 78), C. Phillips

What’s next?

Arsenal will travel to the u18 Premier League’s second-place side Chelsea on April 7th. Chelsea are still very much chasing top spot, just four points behind with two games in hand, so it will be a tough match for 10th-place Arsenal.