BLACKBURN, England (AFP) - Eduardo Silva sent ten-man Arsenal into the last four of the League Cup here on Tuesday, the Croatian international's second goal of the night sealing a 3-2 extra-time win over Blackburn.
Arsene Wenger's young side advanced despite having Denilson sent off and having surrendered a 2-0 lead, Roque Santa Cruz cancelling out first half goals by Abou Diaby and Eduardo.
Diaby opened the scoring in the sixth minute and Eduardo doubled the lead just before the half hour but Santa Cruz made it five goals in two matches with goals either side of half time.
Denilson was red-carded for a challenge on David Dunn just before 90 minutes was up but Eduardo scored the winner in the 104th minute against a Blackburn team that was without Benni McCarthy until the South African came on as a substitute just before extra-time.
Blackburn had the first opportunity when former Arsenal man David Bentley skipped past Armand Traore only to fire into the stand.
It took just five minutes for the visitors' movement to make a breakthrough when, from a throw on the right, Mark Randall picked out Nicklas Bendtner and the Austrian's cross found Diaby at the far post for the French midfielder to guide the ball over Brad Friedel.
Four minutes later, Bendtner and Diaby, who scored in his previous appearance in the 2-1 win over Steaua Bucharest, exchanged passes, with the 19-year-old striker racing clear of Chris Samba and beating Friedel only for his effort to come back off the bar.
Arsenal were stroking the ball around effortlessly but in the 28th minute, Morten Gamst Pedersen's cross from was only half cleared and the Gunners' Polish goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski was alert to save from Dunn.
Wenger's youngsters showed their cutting edge again as Samba failed to get a touch on with Denilson's through-ball and Eduardo clipped past Friedel to double the lead.
Blackburn halved the deficit just before the break although there was more than a hint of offside as Bentley played Matt Derbyshire in behind Traore. The English youngster crossed for Santa Cruz and the powerful Paraguayan stabbed in.
The hosts were a different team after the break nd just before the hour, Dunn's whipped free-kick was glanced in by Santa Cruz, who got in front of Philippe Senderos and out-jumped Song to head in.
Both teams were desperate to win it in normal time, and with just over a minute left, Santa Cruz wasted a glorious chance when he failed to connect from a flick from New Zealander Ryan Nelson.
In added time, shortly after McCarthy had replaced Derbyshire, Denilson was shown a straight red card for a sliding challenge on Dunn that had caused all of the outfield players on the pitch to become involved in a shoving match.
The first period of extra-time was dominated by what looked like a serious shoulder injury to Arsenal substitute Nacer Barazite, which caused the Dutch 17-year-old to be stretchered off.
But just a minute before the end of the first half of added time, Eduardo scored his second, collecting a pass from Song and slipping the ball past Friedel.
Pedersen shot just wide with a free-kick two minutes into the second period, McCarthy failed to test Fabianski and Samba headed against the post in the final minute but there was to be no equaliser.
