With just three minutes of regulation time left, the well structured Reading defence collapsed and Kim Little slotted home on her 200th Arsenal appearance. 

The captain put her team through to the Continental Cup semifinals along with Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea. 

In a frustrating match, neither side were able to get any rhythm on the pitch, it took a great team play that finished on the right wing where Lisa Evans' cross was met by Little.

Arsenal came into this match as favourites to win after beating Reading 3-0 last time out, but the Royals managed to get the best of their hosts and held them off well.  

  • Story of the match

Reading did not let Arsenal have a moment of space. They pressed the right areas and closed down the Gunners' channels to play out, leaving them with no options to play their football. 

Clear opportunities were missed by Evans and Jordan Nobbs in the first half where they could have put some ease into their play. 

At the start of the second half, Farah Williams had the opportunity to put Reading in the lead after Lisa-Marie Utland cut back the ball off a Manuela Zinsberger save, but hit the post. 

Beth Mead was just inches away to end the tension, but it was decided that the ball did not cross the line after Rachel Laws tipped the ball onto her post and managed to catch it before giving Arsenal a lead.

Tension kept building, as did desperation. After it finally seemed one side settled their feet, in the 86th minute Arsenal broke down Reading with fine movement of the ball.

The play ended up on the right wing with Evans where she placed the ball across the goal, into the back post where Little met the ball and tapped it into the back of the net. 

Reading put all their efforts to give the hosts a run in the dying minutes, but the home side extended their undefeated run in all competitions at Meadow Park. 

  • What player of the match, Lisa Evans, said 

"They made it difficult for us, they’re a really good side and credit to them. Probably not our best performance but as a cup game its just important that we get into the next round and we have done that

"I don’t think we took the chances. I think that was the difference, we didn’t finish the chances that let Reading into the game a bit more. We had to find other options to play.

"I got a little bit nervous in the end, but we kept trying to play our football. We stuck at it and we got the reward, so we’ll take that."

When asked about what to expect this Sunday against Chelsea: "A win hopefully.

"It will be a really tough game, Chelsea are right up there with one of the best teams in Europe. Physical game, really strong, we need to be physically there and we’re going to be up for that no doubt about it."