After scoring a hat trick in the first leg 6-0 thrashing of Ludogorets back in London, Mesut Ozil struck a late winner winner on Tuesday as Arsenal came from behind to secure a 3-2 win over the Bulgarians at the Stadion Vasil Levski.
Jonathan Cafu and Keșeru gave the home side a two goal lead within three minutes of the opening 15 minutes but the visitors rallied back to draw level through Granit Xhaka and Olivier Giroud moments before half time. Mesut Ozil grabbed the winner with a superb individual display inside the final three minutes to extend Arsenal's unbeaten run to 15 games.
With the games coming thick and fast at the moment, it was no surprise to see Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger making five changes to his line up.
One of those was enforced – Hector Bellerin picked up a knock in training yesterday, so Carl Jenkinson came in for his first Champions League match since 2013.
Giroud was rewarded for his brace against Sunderland with a first starting role of the season – Alexis shifted to the left – while Ramsey also made the starting XI after his impressive cameo on Saturday.
Xhaka was selected after completing his domestic ban and, as usual in this competition, David Ospina continued in goal after keeping clean sheets in his last two outings.
Giroud's former Tours team-mate Keseru started up front for the hosts, having scored seven goals in his last three games.
Both teams had faced a long trip to get to the game, as Ludogorets' Razgrad home is some 350km from Sofia. But Arsenal made their first ever visit to Bulgaria in good spirits, on the back of a 14-game unbeaten run, which included a 6-0 victory over Ludogorets at Emirates Stadium two weeks ago.
First Half
Arsenal started confidently with Ramsey's ambitious overhead kick failing to trouble the keeper, before Ozil failed to get enough purchase on a low shot when he was played in.
But despite the promising opening 10 minutes, Arsenal were undone by a routine set piece. Wanderson sent his delivery to the far post where Cafu arrived to put the ball past Ospina.
Things went from bad to worse just three minutes later when Cafu turned the provider. The Brazilian winger skipped past Gibbs in the box before squaring for Keseru to finish from close range.
Arsenal needed to respond quickly, and they did just that within five minutes after Ozil's cross from from the byline went past Giroud who miscued before Xhaka arrived with a perfect shot to send the ball into the bottom corner.
Ludogorets were not looking simply to defend their lead, far from it. So with both sides looking for more goals the game was wide open. Ozil had a volley charged down but five minutes from the break Arsenal were level.
Ramsey took up possession on the right wing, swung in a cross and Giroud rose to beat Milan Borjan in the air for the equalizer.
