IT hasn’t taken Burnley long to get used to European football.

If the art of a two-legged tie on the continent is to come away with something in the first leg than they’ve done just that.

A goalless draw at the Fatih Terim Stadium against Istanbul Basaksehir will certainly suit Sean Dyche’s men more than it does the home team. An away goal in a positive result would have been a bonus, but it rarely looked like coming.

Instead the clean sheet will do nicely. It wasn’t always pretty, or convincing, but it was job done. Like a team of European masters.

Of the Clarets starting XI debutant Joe Hart and Johann Berg Gudmundsson had 100 European appearances between them, the rest of the side just 27, including the second qualifying round ties against Aberdeen.

Experienced on this stage they aren’t, but they showed their mettle in Istanbul.

This wasn’t your stereotypical trip to Turkey. The ground was sparsely populated, the travelling Clarets making more noise than the Basaksehir fans in attendance. But for a first overseas outing in Europe for many of this side, it was still a test and it was one they passed on an historic night for the club.

After the domestic duel with Aberdeen it was on to mainland Europe. Around 800 Clarets made the trip to Turkey, via connecting flights all across the continent, and they were here to savour it.

Amongst the old Longside songbook belted out before kick-off was a roar of ‘Burnley are back’. Well and truly. Now they have put themselves in pole position, just, to continue the journey.

But after the blood and thunder of the Battle of Britain clash with Aberdeen, this was always likely to be a more typical, more sedate European affair, especially in the opening stages of the first leg.

Burnley started nervously, Eljero Elia scuffing a shot wide from Edin Visca’s low cross inside two minutes after Ben Mee had lost possession, but as they eased their way into the game both teams were content to prod and probe, looking for signs of weakness and finding very few, as you’d expect for sides built on solid foundations.

Burnley could find few chinks in the armour, although they appeared happy to put the clean sheet down as their priority.

It was from set-pieces they looked most threatening. Just before the half hour Mee flicked on Phil Bardsley’s delivery from deep but the arrival of the ball at James Tarkowski’s feet seemed to take him by surprise, and he was unable to force it home inside the six-yard box.

Hart’s European experience would come to the fore in the second half, earning a booking for time wasting as he did all he could to slow the game down, but it was his two saves that were key in the first half, first pushing away Junior Caicara’s angled drive, before a more routine stop to tip over Manuel da Costa’s header from Visca’s floated corner.

Ten minutes into the second half it was another free-kick from deep, fired into the box by Hart, that caused the home side problems. Again the flick on was won, this time by Jon Walters, but as Jeff Hendrick tried to square the ball for an unmarked Tarkowski goalkeeper Mert Gunok was out to force the ball behind.

That was the last we’d see of Burnley as a real attacking force, with Basaksehir looking in more urgent need of the goal.

They thought they had it just after the hour, Riad Bajic working the ball to substitute Milos Jojic on the right side of the penalty area, but his shot from 12-yards could only find the side-netting.

That set the pattern for the final half hour, but despite being under pressure the Clarets never looked like creaking. Hart took his booking, a succession of corners were headed away and the back four stood firm.

Burnley: Joe Hart 8, Phil Bardsley 7, James Tarkowski 8, Ben Mee 7, Charlie Taylor 8, Johann Berg Gudmundsson 6 (Sam Vokes 62), Ashley Westwood 7, Jack Cork 6, Jon Walters 6, Jeff Hendrick 6, Ashley Barnes 6 (Aaron Lennon 77)

Subs: Adam Legzdins, Matt Lowton, Kevin Long, Ben Gibson, Stephen Ward

Istanbul Basaksehir: Mert Gunok, Junior Caicara, Manuel da Costa, Alexandru Epureanu, Gael Clichy, Mahmut Tekdemir, Emre Belozoglu, Edin Visca, Irfan Kahveci (Milos Jojic 58), Eljero Elia (Kerim Frei 84), Riad Bajic (Stefano Napoleoni 89)

Subs: Volkan Babacan, Joseph Attamah, Ugur Ucar, Gokhan Inler