Roma disappointed in Europe again, failing to build on an early Diego Perotti penalty for their 1-1 draw at Viktoria Plzen.
Follow the action from all four Italian Europa League contenders in our LIVEBLOG.
Elsewhere in this group, Austria Wien earned a 3-2 victory away to Astra.
Roma disappointed in Europe again, failing to build on an early Diego Perotti penalty for their 1-1 draw at Viktoria Plzen.
Follow the action from all four Italian Europa League contenders in our LIVEBLOG.
Elsewhere in this group, Austria Wien earned a 3-2 victory away to Astra.
The Giallorossi began their Europa League campaign with an inevitable sense of dejection after crashing out of the Champions League play-offs. Daniele De Rossi and Emerson Palmieri were suspended, but Thomas Vermaelen returned from his ban to partner fellow new boy Federico Fazio at centre-back. Mario Rui and Antonio Rudiger remained on the treatment table. Viktoria Plzen famously knocked Napoli out of this competition in 2013, but had drawn their last three UEFA home fixtures.
It took all of four minutes to break the deadlock in the Czech Republic, as Stephan El Shaarawy was clumsily tripped by Ales Mateju and Diego Perotti converted the penalty with an extremely slow but careful run-up.
It was all cancelled out by a combination of errors, as a Martin Zeman cross was allowed in and Marek Bakos barged Juan Jesus aside for a free header that Alisson let squirm through his grasp. It means Roma have kept only one clean sheet in their last 33 European games.
The hosts then took control with a series of set plays and attacks, as the equaliser seemed to stun Roma. Alisson made up for the earlier error with a good reaction save at the near post on Duris flicking on a Zeman free kick.
Radja Nainggolan was unlucky to see his low drive smack the base of the upright after a smart El Shaarawy assist. Juan Manuel Iturbe sprung the offside trap only to hit a terrible fresh-air volley.
Edin Dzeko replaced the sluggish Gerson for the second half and almost immediately nodded over from four yards, as he wasn’t expecting the Plzen goalkeeper to miss the Kostas Manolas cross.
Dzeko also sprung the offside trap to go clear, but his first touch was poor and Bolek did brilliantly to fingertip the ball off his foot one-on-one.
Spalletti threw on Francesco Totti and Alessandro Florenzi, but a series of crosses for Dzeko were over-hit. In stoppages Plzen had penalty appeals, though replays show Horava kicked the turf and then Perotti’s leg rather than the other way round.
In stoppages both sides had chances to snatch a victory. Dzeko let Totti’s pass over the top bounce, allowing the goalkeeper to get there first, then at the other end Alisson flew to fingertip a Petrzela screamer out from under the bar.
Viktoria Plzen 1-1 Roma
Perotti pen 4 (R), Bakos 11 (P)
Viktoria Plzen: Bolek; Mateju, Hejda, Hubnik, Limbersky; Kopic, Kace, Horava, Zeman (Petrzela 72); Bakos (Poznar 84), Duris (Krmencik 78)
Roma: Alisson; Bruno Peres, Manolas, Fazio, Juan Jesus; Gerson (Dzeko 46), Paredes, Nainggolan; Perotti; El Shaarawy (Totti 72), Iturbe (Florenzi 72)
Ref: Buquet (FRA)