Red Star Belgrade 0-1 Arsenal: Late Giroud stunner hands Gunners victory in tepid affair

Full-time: Red Star Belgrade 0-1 Arsenal.

A stunner from Giroud settles it for the Gunners, who have one foot in the knockout stages. Nothing else to report from that dreadful, dreadful match.

Arsenal work the ball well down the right hand side. Nelson finds Sheaf in the box but the latter just can't sort his feet out.

Five minutes of time added on. No justice.

Arsenal makes two late changes - Willock is replaced by McGuane, Coquelin off for Sheaf.

Belgrade try to immediately respond but Kanga makes a hash of his shot from outside the area. The Serbs may feel hard done by with regards to the red card, but the finish from Giroud was simply sublime.

A simply stunning goal from Arsenal!

Wilshere jinks his way past a couple of challenges and finds Walcott who returns the favour and darts into the box. Wilshere finds Walcott again, who heads down for Giroud, who manouevres his body magnificently to find clip the fall delightfully over the helpless Borjan.

We deserved that.

GOAL! Red Star Belgrade 0-1 Arsenal (Giroud)

RED CARD!

Red Star's Rodic sees red after catching Coquelin with an elbow.

Replays show the second yellow to be a tad harsh, but Arsenal won't mind. Can the 10 men of Belgrade hold on as we enter the last 10 minutes of the match?

A change for Red Star Belgrade - the first of the night for either side - as Pesic replaces Boakye.

Arsenal finally create some sort of chance from a corner. Wilshere's low cross finds Giroud, who volleys the ball high a wide of Borjan's goal.

More Arsenal set-pieces, more nothingness to fill the bleak void of quality in this game.

Radonjic runs at Elneny and gets the better of the Egyptian, but his shot is held easily by Cech.

Le Tallec the next Belgrade man to go in the book for a late challenge on Wilshere. Arsenal have a free-kick about 25 yards out. It looks like Nelson will strike at goal.

It hits the wall. Because of course it does.

Didn't think the second half could be worse than the first period, but it's certainly shaping up to be like that.

Boakye goes in the book for a late challenge and concedes another Arsenal free-kick. Which comes to nothing. Again.

Another free-kick for Arsenal, to be taken Wilshere.

The ball is lofted in, and headed away. Drat.

Red Star threaten through Radonjic, who had a good chance to score in the first half. He tests Cech again, but the Arsenal 'keeper manages to hold onto the ball.

Nelson carves himself a chance after dispossessing a Belgrade player in their own box. His shot is parried away by Borjan, and nothing comes of the corner.

First chance of the second half goes to Arsenal. A darting run from Wilshere hands Willock a chance, he turns and lays the ball off to Walcott, whose scuffed short deflects off Giroud and loops high into the arms of Borjan.

Back under way at the Marakana, Red Star getting things going.

Half-time: Red Star Belgrade 0-0 Arsenal.

Walcott had a shot, so did Radonjic. Apart from that, nothing.

Two minutes of stoppage time until we are blessed with the sweet release of the interval.

Not long to go until half-time, but Arsenal do have a free-kick right outside the area.

Walcott whips, Borjan flaps, and it goes for a corner, which comes to nothing, quelle surprise.

Belgrade LOVE a lofted ball into the right-hand channel. Can't get enough.

They've just tried it against but Maitland-Niles manages to nod back to Cech.

Nothing's going on at the moment. Debuchy had a shot from about 3,000 yards, but that's it.

Cech is called into action as Radonjic snaps a low shot at goal. The Cezch beats it away but needs the help of Nelson to fully clear the danger.

Walcott tries to spring an immediate counter-attack but is hauled down and is now receiving treatment.

Wilshere picks out Giroud with a driven pass. The Frenchman chests it down and sprays a ball out to Maitland-Niles, but play is stopped as Stojkovic is down in a heap.

Red Star look positive and throw men forward but that last bit of quality for the final pass is not there for them at the moment, as Nelson makes a strong recovery tackle.

Belgrade snatch back possession and win a corner, which Cech inititally beats away, but Donald's cross is turned away for another one, from which Boakye hits the post. Free header for the forward, who can count himself a tad unlucky.

Wenger there, describing the first 23 minutes with his face.

Wilshere is down, grimacing after being trodden on. What was that Troy Deeney said about cohones?

He bravely manages to haul himself up to take the resulting free-kick, which comes to nothing.

Boakye's willingness to run into the right channel is troubling Arsenal. The forward latches onto another lofted delivery but his final ball lacked accuracy as his teammates crept into the box.

Walcott forces a fine sprawling save from Borjan after reacting first to the spillage from a set-piece.

The ball is then lofted into the danger area but Giroud cannot connect as he attempts to surge through a number of bodies. Better from Arsenal.

Kanga runs into space and delivers an inviting long-range cross to the back stick, but Debuchy manages to head it behind for a corner.

Arsenal clear the resulting set-piece and manage to snuff out Boakye, who had latched onto a lofted ball just inside the penalty area.

A couple of searching cross-field balls attempted by Arsenal, but both are overcooked.

Belgrade try to probe as Boakye plays a lovely ball down the right channel, but Arsenal easily snuff out the danger. Not a lot happening in the opening exchanges.

First opening of the game to Arsenal goes to Walcott, but he is eventually crowded out by the Belgrade defence. Lovely pass by Wislhere to find his compatriot.

After a frenetic opening couple of minutes play is stopped. Kanga, who was an injury doubt before the match, is down receiving treatment. He seems to have been on the receiving end of a flailing arm from Maitland-Niles.

Arsenal get us under way in Belgrade.

Walcott has the honour, the privilege of holding one of the #EqualGame plaques.

And there's a mascot, dabbing profusely at the camera. Welcome to football in 2017.

The teams emerge from the much lauded and on to the pitch. The Marakana is packed to the rafters this evening.

The teams are out in the tunnel. Kick-off just moments away.

No mean feat, Theo.

Some pre-match thoughts from Arsene Wenger: "It will be a heated game certainly. We have to make sure the focus is on the game and how we play. Best way to keep crowd quiet is to start strong.

"It's always open down to performance [on Mathieu Debuchy's future] We would have comfort heading into the next games as we would have played twice away from home."

Arsenal are not the only English side in Europa League action tonight - Everton are set to host Ligue 1 outfit Lyon this evening.

Ronald Koeman's side's European adventure is already in danger of a premature end after two poor results against Atalanta and Apollon Limassol, and only a win against Bruno Genesio's men will suffice if they wish to have a realistic chance of making it to the knockout stage.

Can the Blues pull a result out of the hat? IB Times UK will cover all the action.

The news you've all been waiting for - finally managed to track down Red Star Belgrade's substitutes for this evening's game.

Red Star Belgrade substitutes: Supic, Racic, Milijas, Adzic, Babic, Pesic, Gobeljic.

Lot of ic's there. Their starting cohorts are presumably itching for a win that would take them above Arsenal in the group.

How terrifying...

Jack Wilshere will hope to control proceedings at the Marakana, where Arsenal's much questioned backbone will be put to the test.

Watford's Troy Deeney saw fit to criticise the Gunners' collective character after helping the Hornets to victory on Saturday, but Wilshere does not think the forward's comments were at all correct.

"As a player if your attitude is questioned, it's horrible," Wilshere said ahead of the game in Serbia, as quoted on Arsenal's official site. "I look around this team and you can't question our character.

"People try to put us down, they always have. I don't think the comments were justified. When we look back at the game we look back at ourselves and what we did wrong. I don't think we can look back and question our character."

Lovely little backdrop as fans congregate in Belgrade.

TEAM NEWS

Arsenal substitutes: Macey, Da Silva, Nketiah, Akpom, Osei-Tutu, McGuane, Sheaf.

The Marakana, with a capacity of around 55,000, is already filling up with just under an hour to go until kick-off. The atmosphere is said to be one of the more intimidating in European football - do Arsenal have the cojones to cope?

It looks like Arsenal are about to set up with Rob Holding, Mohamed Elneny and Mathieu Debuchy as a three-man defence. There's no real way to describe that formidable trio, really.

Guelor Kanga has managed to shake off a knock in time to start for Red Star, while forward Richmond Boakye, who has reportedly been catching the eye of Chelsea, leads the line for the hosts.

TEAM NEWS

Red Star Belgrade: Borjan, Le Tallec, Rodic, Stojkovic, Savic, Krsticic, Kanga, Donald, Radonjic, Srnic, Boakye.

A whole raft of changes from the Arsenal side that collapsed at Watford, as expected.

Wenger has made nine changes as he bids to keep his fringe players and youth prospects sharp, with Cech and Elneny the only survivors from their defeat at Vicarage Road.

TEAM NEWS

Arsenal: Cech, Debuchy, Holding, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Coquelin, Nelson, Willock, Wilshere, Giroud, Walcott.

Arsenal may have emerged victorious in their last Europa League outing against BATE Borisov, but they will certainly not have it all their own way in Belgrade.

Red Star have only lost one of their last eight European home matches, with their only defeat courtesy of Bolton Wanderers all the way back in 2007.

Despite their recent financial troubles, Red Star Belgrade are looked upon as one of the most illustrious sides from Eastern Europe. They are the most successful side in Serbian football history and currently hold top spot in the Serbian Super Liga ahead of their arch-rivals Partizan.

Though they are not seen as one of the elite clubs in world football, Red Star have tasted their fair share of continental success, winning the European Cup in 1991 and reaching the semi-finals of Europe's premier club competition on three occasions.

Robert Prosinecki, Nemanja Vidic and Dejan Stankovic all enjoyed a spell at the Rajko Mitić Stadium but in recent years the club have had to sell their prized assets - including Liverpool starlet Marko Grujic - in order to service their debts.

Red Star Belgrade could be without a quartet of first-team players for their eagerly-anticipated Europa League fixture against Arsenal, head coach Vladan Milojevic has confirmed.

"Nemanja Milic won't feature because he's only returned to training yesterday," Milojevic told reporters at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday. "Ricardinho and Abraham Frimpong are also out injured. We will have to wait and see if Guelor Kanga recovers in time. He's been injured since the match in Cologne."

A blend of experienced fringe players and vaunted youth prospects is my guess. Petr Cech will start for the Gunners this evening.

Arsenal will all but secure their passage into the knockout rounds of the Europa League with a win against former Red Star Belgrade but manager Arsene Wenger is primed to ring the changes against the former European Cup winners.

A host of regular first-team stars have not travelled to Serbia, while right-back Mathieu Debuchy is set to start despite having not played a senior competitive match for the Gunners since November.

"Hopefully he gets through," Wenger told reporters at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday evening. "He will certainly start tomorrow."

Good afternoon and welcome to IB Times UK's live coverage of Red Star Belgrade vs Arsenal.

English sides have enjoyed encouraging starts to their Champions League campaigns, while Arsenal will hope to maintain their perfect Europa League record with a win against Serbia's finest.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger will likely ring the changes as he looks to keep his side fresh for their trip to fellow Europa cohorts Everton, who take on Lyon at Goodison Park later this evening.

Stay with IB Times UK for team news, updates and reaction from all the goings on at the Red Star Stadium.