Arsenal grabbed a vital away goal and put themselves in a strong position to qualify for the semi finals when they held Villarreal to a 1-1 draw in their Champions League quarter final first leg clash on Tuesday.

Villarreal threatened to cause an upset as they completely dominated the first half. The hosts raced to a deserved lead in the 10th minute when Marcos Senna took control of the position well outside the area and smashed home an unstoppable drive to put his side in front.

Arsenal were struggling to contain Villarreal as the hosts continued to create chances at their will with Senna and Ariel Ibagaza going close to doubling the lead for the Yellow Submarine. Lukasz Fabianski replaced an injured Manuel Almunia midway through the first half and was immediately pressed into service as Senna tried another long range effort while Joan Capedvila failed to beat the Arsenal keeper on the rebound.

The visitors stepped up their game in the second half with Emmanuel Adebayor narrowly heading over Theo Walcott's cross. The Togo international made amends to his miss minutes later with a superb goal as he executed an overhead kick perfectly to slam home Cesc Fabregas' punt into the area to pull his side back on level terms.

Samir Nasri almost snatched the game for Arsenal but was unable to hit the target leaving the Gunners with some work to do in the second leg next week.