Champions League, Besiktas vs Arsenal final score: First leg ends in scoreless draw, despite Aaron Ramsey being sent off

Chamions League season is underway, though we aren’t to the group stage yet, which most people view as the first round. Turkish side Besiktas is hosting English Premier League side Arsenal in the first leg of a Champions League playoff pairing.

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The winner, determined by aggregate score of the two legs hosted at each team’s home stadium, goes on to the group stage of the tournament.

Despite being the host team, Beskitas is most likely viewed as an under dog in the game. They might need to get creative and that is what forward Demba Ba did from the start of the game. Ba, who is familiar with Arsenal from his time in the Premier League particularly with Chelsea FC last season, was up front for the opening kick off.

He decided that was as good as any time to catch Arsenal off guard. As the game started he noticed that Arsenal goal keeper Wojciech Szczesny was off his line. Ba struck the ball and went for goal from the midfield line on a second or so into the game and it looks like his kick was not only on target, but going towards the top right corner. Szczesny was forced to scramble and react to try and get a hand on it to make a save, and fortunately for Arsenal he does.

Besiktas held the edge in possession throughout the first half, and also had more shots and more shots on goal than Arsenal did. The Turkish side wasn’t able to take a lead and they need as many goals as possible at home before going on the road, while trying to hold Arsenal to the clean sheet in the second half.

The second half continued much like the first, a tightly contested back and forth with a few shots for each team but no real chances. By the 78th minute there had been five yellow cards handed out, while none were shown in the first half of the game. This was the moment in the game when things got interesting.

In the 79th minute, Besiktas was still holding the edge in possession over Arsenal slightly. Arsenal got a free kick from about 20 yards out along the left post.

Santi Cazorla took the kick and went for a shot on goal. Cazorla went low and the shot was stopped by Tolga Zengin, but he had a hard time getting control of the ball and it went straight up in the air but he caught it and got it under control.

In the 80th minute, Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey was shown his second yellow card of the game, and was sent off with a red. That left Arsenal to close out the game with just 10 men, making themselves vulnerable to the Besiktas attack.

In the 88th minute, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got a shot off and past the Besiktas keeper. The ball hit the post and bounced back out, but Besiktas was able to recover and avoid giving up a goal to the short-handed Arsenal team.

Neither team could break the scoreless stand off and the first leg of the match ended in a scoreless draw. The winner of the second leg, played at the Emirates, will advance. A draw with any goals scored would give Besiktas the win in the pairing on away goals. A scoreless draw would see them go to extra time.