LONDON, Dec 12: Arsenal suffered a humiliating League Cup quarter-final exit to fourth-tier Bradford City on Tuesday but there was no such shock for AS Roma in the Italian Cup or Valencia in the Copa del Rey.

Bradford City clinched a stunning triumph 3-2 on penalties after an absorbing game finished 1-1 at the end of extra-time for one of the biggest shocks in the competition for many years.

Roma beat Atalanta 3-0 in their fifth round clash, despite playing most of the second half with 10 men while Valencia moved towards a place in the quarter-finals of the Spanish Cup after a 2-0 win at Osasuna in their last-16, first-leg match.

There was Ligue 1 action in France with Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic firing a superb hat-trick to inspire Paris St Germain to a clinical 4-0 win at Valenciennes and close within two points of leaders Lyon.

Arsenal needed an 88th minute goal from captain Thomas Vermaelen to force the extra period but failed to make their superiority tell and it was Vermaelen who missed their final spot kick to send the minnows through.

Garry Thompson had scored with a tidy far post finish in the 16th minute to give a surprise lead to the hosts who then held off a second-half barrage before Arsenal’s Belgium centre back Vermaelen levelled with a far-post header.

“They defended well and we all know what happened on the penalties. We had many, many chances and their keeper had a good game,” Arsenal’s under pressure manager Arsene Wenger told Sky Sports.

Aston Villa joined Bradford in the semi-finals after Andreas Weimann scored two late goals to help them come from behind to beat Norwich City 4-1.

In the only English Premier League fixture played on Tuesday, Sunderland eased the pressure on under-fire manager Martin O’Neill with a crucial 3-0 win over fellow strugglers Reading to move out of the relegation zone.

First-half goals by James McClean and Steven Fletcher and a late strike by Stephane Sessegnon secured all three points at the Stadium of Light, lifting Sunderland up to 15th place with 16 points while Reading remain second bottom in the table.

Miralem Pjanic and Pablo Osvaldo put Roma 2-0 up before the break following two howlers from Atalanta goalkeeper Andrea Consigli.

Mattia Destro extended Roma’s lead shortly after the interval.

Osvaldo swiftly went from hero to villain as he was shown a straight red card 10 minutes into the second period for an elbow on Atalanta defender Carlos Matheu.

“I’m happy with the result,” Roma coach Zdenek Zeman said. “At the beginning we tried to do what we know how to do. In the second-half we gave them too much initiative, but what was important was to go through to the next round.”

Dani Parejo scored with an expertly-taken free kick over the wall and substitute Roberto Soldado scored in added time to give 2008 winners Valencia the upper hand ahead of next week’s second-leg.

The victory at the Reyno de Navarra stadium in Pamplona made it two wins out of two for Valencia’s new coach Ernesto Valverde, both against Osasuna who they also beat 1-0 in La Liga at the same venue in his debut on Saturday.

Ibrahimovic, the former Barcelona, AC Milan and Inter Milan striker, was in inspirational form as he netted his maiden Ligue 1 hat-trick to take his league leading scoring tally to 17 goals.

Ezequiel Lavezzi added a fourth with eight minutes to go as PSG went to 32 points from 17 games and lead third-placed Olympique Marseille by three points.

Nice climbed to joint seventh place as they beat nine-man Rennes 1-0 with Dario Cvitanich scoring the only goal of the game from the penalty spot after both Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik and Yassine Jebbour had been sent off.

Lille got back to winning ways with a 2-0 win over Toulouse. Marko Basa headed Lille in front and Dimitri Payet curled in a stunning strike late on.—Agencies