Arsenal qualifies for the Champion’s league group stages

Arsenal ensured they’ll be in Thursday’s Champion’s League group stage draw with a narrow 1-0 win over Turkish side Besiktas at the Emirates Stadium. A single goal from Alexis Sanchez was enough for the Gunners to take victory after being held to a goalless draw in the first leg in Istanbul last week.

The hosts started well in the first 10 minutes piling on the pressure, a sloppy giveaway from Besiktas allowed Jack Wilshere to burst through on goal, though he missed the one-on-one with goalkeeper Tolga Zengin.

Their fire gradually faded at the face of a very efficient Besiktas defence. As time went on, Arsenal continued to look pedestrian, with their opponents growing on confidence. A last minute tackle from Laurent Koscielny prevented Mustafa Pektemek from  breaking clean through on goal 10 minutes before the halftime whistle.

Besiktas attacked further with Olcay Sahan dashing down the left and pulling a ball back into the penalty box for an onrushing Ramon Motta. Luckily for Arsenal, he couldn’t make clean contact with the ball and the chance was broken.

Arsenal finally broke the deadlock in stoppage time thanks to a one-two between Jack Wilshere and Mesut Ozil fell for Alexis Sanchez in the penalty area, with the Chilean promptly netting his first goal for his new club.

The Gunners came out in the second half with a new burst of confidence, Alexis Sanchez almost doubled their advantage within minutes of the restart, through his poled effort from  inside the box was deflected around Tolga Zengin’s post.

Demba Ba pounced on a loose ball in the penalty area thanks to an error by Mathieu Flamini but his effort only flashed wide .

At the 75^th minute,  Santi Carzola hit a shot into the box, moments before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was denied at point blank range by Zengin.  As Arsenal struggled to end the tie, right-back  Mathieu Debuchy was sent off for a second yellow card seconds later.

Besiktas threw everything they had at the London side but ,  in the end, Arsenal did just enough to progress to the group stages.