Dennis Bergkamp's fear of aircraft will keep him out of Arsenal's two remaining away games in this group, but last night he made up for that with a flying header 16 minutes from time that almost gave his side an unlikely victory. But justice was done in time added on when Sergei Rebrov equalised.

Arsenal had been dominated for most of the game by a Dynamo side that impressed with the quality of their football, and the Dutchman got his head to a rightwing cross from Lee Dixon only minutes after Kiev's most dangerous player, Andrii Shevchenko, had a "goal" disallowed for offside; replays showed it was not.

From the start it was clear that the Ukrainians were far more artful opposition than Panathinaikos were in Arsenal's last Champions League game at Wembley. The East Europeans' mesmerising movement betrayed them as a classy side, and their willingness to run directly at the Arsenal defence caused the home side all sorts of problems.

After only four minutes Shevchenko cut in from the right, sped past two defenders and reached the edge of the area with a clear sight at goal. But, thankfully for Arsenal, his final shot was disappointing, nestling comfortably in the arms of David Seaman.

Five minutes later the England goalkeeper needed to be far more acrobatic, skipping across his goal to push over a shot unleashed from 40 yards by the central defender Vladyslav Vaschuk.

Kiev's pace on the counterattack and their ability to get players forward in numbers was causing panic in the Arsenal defence, and in midfield the English champions were being completely dominated.

They were desperately missing the influence of the suspended Patrick Vieira and the injured Emmanuel Petit.

The manager, Arsene Wenger, went for safety-first in deciding who should replace the pair, retaining the experienced Remi Garde and calling up Stephen Hughes to stand in for the suspended Vieira. But this makeshift twosome proved no substitute for the real thing as a mobile and technically astute Kiev side broke forward.

On 21 minutes the visitors again went close. A typically dangerous burst down the right by the full-back Oleg Luzhnyi brought a corner from which the ball eventually found Shevchenko, who broke into the left of the area by the six-yard box only to fire his shot wastefully across goal.

The 70,000 or more Arsenal fans packed into Wembley had to wait until the half-hour to get excited. As the game began to open up more, Nicholas Anelka took a leaf from the Kiev book and ran at the visiting defence. But, after muscling his way past two defenders, he blasted his shot from just inside the area way over the bar.

Wenger must have gone in at half-time with mixed feelings, concerned that his pre-tournament prediction that Kiev would be the group's danger side was coming true but relieved that the domination of his side had not yet led to them conceding a goal.

But again, in the second half, whenever Garde or Hughes did win possession, they struggled to find the spark needed to inspire a serious attack on Alexander Shovkovsky's goal.

Once again the threat came at the other end. Andrii Husin cut in from the left past two defenders to shoot just wide, and then the ever-dangerous Shevchenko was denied three times in quick succession.

First Seaman was forced to dive bravely at the feet of the Ukraine international, and then Tony Adams produced a captain's tackle to steal the ball away from the Kiev player as he threatened to burst through.

Finally Seaman was relieved to gather Shevchenko's 20-yard free-kick down by his near post as Kiev continued to dominate a game in which Arsenal often looked the away side.

However, Bergkamp's goal leaves them in a strong position in the group.

Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Adams, Anelka (Vivas 84), Bergkamp, Overmars, Keown, Parlour, Hughes, Garde. Subs Not Used: Manninger, Bould, Wreh, Grimandi, Boa Morte, Mendez. Booked: Bergkamp. Goals: Bergkamp 74.

Dynamo Kiev: Shovkovsky, Luzhnyi, Horovko, Vashchuk, Dmytrulin, Kaladze, Kossovsky, Shevchenko, Rebrov, Husin (Kardash 82), Belkevitch. Subs Not Used: Kernozenko, Gurerassimenko, Radchenko, Mikhailenko, Makouski, Kiriukhin. Goals: Rebrov 90.

Referee: R Wojcik (Poland).