Renee Slegers urged her Arsenal team to dust themselves down and own the performance that led to them being dumped out of the FA Cup quarter-finals by Brighton. 

Fresh from reaching the Women's Champions League semi-finals, Arsenal were beaten 2-0 by Brighton on Sunday, with Madison Haley and Caitlin Hayes on target. 

Brighton opened the scoring in the 48th minute through Haley, who, after racing on to Fran Kirby's throughball, picked out the top-left corner with a sensational finish. 

Slegers introduced the likes of Olivia Smith, Caitlin Foord and Alessia Russo in the 58th minute, but the Gunners' fate was sealed just five minutes after their introductions. 

Kirby's corner from the left was met by Hayes, whose towering header looped over Daphne van Domselaar to help Dario Vidosic's side into the final four. 

Arsenal edged the expected goals (xG) battle, registering a total of 1.56 from 17 shots, though only three were on target, to Brighton's 1.3 from 10 attempts. 

The Gunners have now failed to lift the trophy since 2016, but with a huge end to their season in the Women's Super League and the Champions League coming up, Slegers encouraged her team to regroup quickly.

"I think we have to put our hands up and own the performance and congratulate Brighton because they managed the game better than us," Slegers said. 

"They were clinical with the finishes they had, and we didn't create enough, though there were enough chances to win the game today."

Full-time at Meadow Park. pic.twitter.com/o7ufYl2UdL

— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) April 5, 2026

Arsenal's season will now pause ahead of the final international break of the campaign, and captain Kim Little insisted there were positives to take from their latest defeat.

"You obviously don't want to sit with it for too long, we're professionals, so we know how to respond to situations like this," Little said. 

"We'll obviously be disappointed in our performance, and we'll reflect, assess our individual and team performance, and what we did today, what didn't go right.

"Then we'll obviously look to put that right, coming back after the break."

Elsewhere in the competition, Liverpool booked their place in the semi-finals after Zara Shaw's 116th-minute winner helped beat Charlton Athletic 1-0 after extra time. 

Neither side could find the breakthrough in normal time, and the match looked set to go to penalties after Jenna Clark twice hit the woodwork in the second half of added time.

However, Shaw was able to stab the ball past Sophie Whitehouse late on, which was Liverpool's just reward, given they ended the match with an xG total of 4.11 from their 26 shots, compared to Charlton's tally of 0.62 from six attempts.