Beşiktaş striker Ba on his 'instinctive gamble'

• Beşiktaş JK striker Demba Ba tells ITV Sport his shot from kick-off was "instinctive"
• Ba says Beşiktaş missed an opportunity in their 0-0 draw with Arsenal FC
• Beşiktaş coach Slaven Bilić describes it as a "great game for everyone"
• Gunners manager Arsène Wenger rues his team's final pass in Istanbul

Demba Ba, Beşiktaş striker
Just from the kick-off Oğuzhan Özyakup looked at me and told me to look at the keeper. I saw where he was and I said 'OK, I'll try'. I took the gamble and I nearly got it in! It was just instinct.

I think we were the better team on the pitch and we could have taken advantage of the dominance we had of the whole game. Unfortunately it didn't happen – some days are just like this – so we will try to make it happen in London next week.

Slaven Bilić, Beşiktaş coach
I think it was a great game for everyone. It was up and down all the time and I'm so proud of the performance of my team. We were playing against one of the best sides in Europe and we gave them a really good game and were close to winning. They had their chances, of course, but we had really big ones. If you want to beat Arsenal you have to score against them. We were a bit unlucky – I can't blame the players.

Of course it would have been better if we won this game but we have a positive result because we didn't concede a goal. We're capable of creating chances against whoever we play.

This was the first time the players were against such big players they're usually watching on television. They will come out of this game with more confidence. It's going to be very difficult but we're going to London still alive.

Arsène Wenger, Arsenal manager
It was a hard game; Beşiktaş played well and we fought very hard. They started very quickly and strongly and are a good team so we had to defend some situations. They have some good attackers. We put in a confident performance but we couldn't find the final pass in the final third. These kind of games are always hard.

It was a difficult match, played at a high pace. Beşiktaş played with 100% pace in the game and fought for every single ball. We needed a great level of concentration. We always want to win but look, Beşiktaş could have won the game, and we could have won the game as well. Maybe a draw is a fair result because both teams had chances to win. We know the second leg will be tight again, but we are at home, so the task is clear for us – we want to win.