Baptista Explodes in the Carling Cup Quarter Finals

Julio Baptista destroyed Liverpool's defense by scoring four goals in the Carling Cup quarter-final match on Tuesday evening. The Gunners started the match off with a team made up mainly of second team players, but played like they could compete against any first team club in the EPL. The final score of this one was 6-3 with Song & Aliadiere putting the other two in.

The real hero of this one wasn't Baptista, but was Jeremie Aliadiere who tore apart the defense and fed most of the goals into Baptista. Aliadiere has had a tough time trying to break into the first team lineup. He's been sent out on loan and has spent most of his time on the reserve team. He looked fantastic in this match.

Liverpool started a mixed lineup with Gerrard, Bellemy, Fowler, Garcia, Kuuyt and a few other first team players getting in on this one.

Baptista's first goal was an amazing shot from 25 yards out. He took the free kick and bent it right over the wall and into the corner. I'm really not sure why the Liverpool keeper was standing 6 yards off his line, but he paid the price.

This was the second match this week against Liverppol. We played them to a 3-1 victory over the weekend with out full first team in action minus Jens Lehman. Manuel Almunia did make some nice saves even with letting in one Saturday and three on Tuesday.

It was nice to see a the Gunners looking like a top form club again. Let's hope that they can continue the effort this weekend against Blackburn. Arsenal will face Bolton in the 4th Round of the FA Cup and Spurs in the Semi-Final of the Carling Cup. The Semi-Finals of the Carling Cup will have two matches, both home and away with the goal total settling who win.