ARSENAL suffered an embarrassment of epic proportions as they lost on penalties to a battling Bradford side whose achievement should rank among football's all-time giant-killing feats.

For much of the Capital One Cup match they outplayed the Gunners to eventually reach a first-ever semi-final. The spot-kick specialists won their ninth successive penalty shoot-out 3-2 after Thomas Vermaelen struck the post. The Arsenal skipper had earlier appeared to rescue the Gunners with a header three minutes from the end of normal time to cancel out Garry Thompson's first-half volley.