Uefa champions league: besiktas 0 arsenal 0

Arsenal midfielder Ramsey was given his marching orders 10 minutes from time in Istanbul on Tuesday for the first time in his club career for a second bookable offence after pulling Oguzhan

Ozyakup's shirt and will miss the return clash at the Emirates Stadium next Wednesday. Both sides had their chances in a scrappy encounter and substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain came

closest three minutes from time when his strike came back off the post, but defeat would have been harsh on Besiktas. Demba Ba almost gave the Turkish side, who were backed by a hostile

crowd at their temporary Ataturk Olympic Stadium home while the Vodafone Arena is being redeveloped, a stunning lead with a speculative lob right from the kick-off and was a real handful for

the Arsenal defence. You may like Besiktas will have to spring a major surprise in order to progress, as Arsenal have reached the group stage 16 years in a row and have won all 12 Champions

League qualifying matches in which they have featured in.  Nacho Monreal and Olivier Giroud replaced hamstring injury victims Kieran Gibbs and Yaya Sanogo in the Arsenal starting line-up,

while Besiktas midfielder Atiba Hutchinson was also ruled out due to a hamstring problem. Ba was clearly brimming with confidence after his hat-trick in the second leg of the third

qualifying round tie against Feyenoord and the striker came close to a stunning opening goal straight from the kick-off. Wojciech Szczesny was almost caught out by an audacious lob from the

Senegal international from just inside the Arsenal half, but tipped the ball against the crossbar after frantically back-pedalling. The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight

to your inbox every week. Ba was in the thick of the action and forced another save from Szczesny eight minutes in with a left-footed volley. Arsenal started to get into their stride and

Giroud had an effort blocked on the turn after good work from Alexis Sanchez before Santi Cazorla fired wide of the far post. Ba was holding his head two minutes before the break after Calum

Chambers slipped and the striker cut into the penalty area, but fired just wide of the near post. Giroud then missed his kick at the other end in a dramatic end to the first half. Ramsey

linked up well with Giroud just after half-time, but the Wales midfielder's touch let him down and the chance had gone. And he should have been made to pay moments later, when Olcay

Sahan raced away and cut inside before guiding a right-footed effort narrowly wide of the far post. Arsenal then lost captain Mikel Arteta to injury following a challenge from Ba, with

Mathieu Flamini replacing the Spanish midfielder five minutes into the second half. Neither side played with any fluency in a scrappy second half, but Mathieu Debuchy caused concern in the 

Besiktas defence when he cut the ball back across goal following a marauding run, but the Turkish side cleared. Cazorla tested Tolga Zengin with a late free-kick that came through the wall,

then Ramsey saw red for a tug on Ozyakup, but Besiktas were unable to make their numerical advantage count. And Oxlade-Chamberlain almost snatched a winner two minutes from time, when he cut

inside and saw his left-footed effort tipped onto the post by Zengin.