Dortmund: Arsenal secured a 1-1 away point against German champions Borussia Dortmund in their first game of the Champions League group stages on Tuesday night, after Ivan Perisic's superb late volley cancelled out Robin van Persie's first-half effort.
Pat Rice stood in for the banned Arsene Wenger on the touchline, with the French boss once again forced to watch his side from the stands as they continued to ride their luck in Europe.
Wenger welcomed Alex Song and Gervinho back into the side in place of Emmanuel Frimpong and Andrey Arshavin respectively, following the duo's domestic bans, whilst Pers Mertesacker, Mikel Arteta and Yossi Benayoun all made their Champions League debuts for Arsenal.
Mario Goetze and Sebastian Kehl returned to the Dortmund starting XI, with both having missed their side's 2-1 home defeat to Hertha Berlin on Saturday through suspension, as Jurgen Klopp named an otherwise unchanged line-up.
Gervinho was presented with the first clear-cut opportunity of the game five minutes in, after the ball evaded the Dortmund backline and presented itself to the Ivorian six-yards out, who looked certain to score only for a superb last-ditch intervention from Mats Hummels.
The home side were quick on the counter-attack themselves, only for Kevin Grosskreutz to fail to take advantage of their man over and blast his effort over the bar, before Shinji Kagawa split the Arsenal centre-backs to latch on to a superb through-ball five minutes later, but was also unable to find the target.
The Arsenal defence continued to look suspect as Dortmund grew in confidence, this time Goetze cut through the middle before slotting Robert Lewandowski through on goal, and the Polish forward looked to have given his side the lead after rounding goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, only for Bacary Sagna to clear off the line.
Van Persie cut an isolated figure up top, with his side loose in possession compared to the creative passing of the opposition, and his frustration showed - the Dutch striker snapping at Benayoun's through-ball on the half-hour mark, as his early shot from the edge of the box crashed into the side netting.
Lewandowski again went close with a headed effort after 38 minutes for Dortmund, but it was Van Persie who would find the back of the net to give the visitors an unlikely half-time lead.
The Arsenal captain capitalised on a string of poor passes from the home team, intercepting Kehl's lazy crossfield ball and finishing superbly to beat Roman Weidenfeller from 20-yards out after 42 minutes, having sprang the offside trap to latch on to Walcott's through-pass.
Dortmund continued to dominate possession in the early stages of the second half, but clear-cut opportunities failed to materialise, with Goetze finding Marcel Schmelzer on the overlap, only for the left-back to blast aimlessly over the goal from an acute angle instead of crossing.
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