Roma came from behind to claim a 2-1 win over Real Madrid and give themselves a slender advantage for the second leg.
Real fail to make possession pay
Roma came from behind to claim a 2-1 win over Real Madrid and give themselves a slender advantage to take to Spain for the second leg.
Real dominated possession for long periods and took a deserved lead through an opportunist strike from Raul in the eighth minute.
But Roma drew level through a 24th-minute strike by David Pizarro before Mancini put them in front in the 58th minute and the Italians hung on for their first-ever home win over Real.
Roma will be hopeful of carrying out another rearguard action in Madrid but the Spanish champions will have their sights set on the quarter-finals for the first time in four years having claimed an away goal.
Real soon took charge and were rewarded with the opening goal after young left-back Miguel Torres released the impressive Arjen Robben down the left.
Record
The Dutch winger pulled back to Guti and his scuffed 20-yard shot was deflected past Doni by Raul, who extended his record to 60 goals in European competitions.
Raul then missed a gilt-edged chance to double Real's lead as he sent an unmarked header wide after Robben burst down the right, and the Real captain was made to rue that miss as Roma levelled four minutes later.
Mancini beat Sergio Ramos on the left and although Gabriel Heinze prevented Francesco Totti turning his low cross goalwards, Pizarro charged in to hammer the loose ball into the roof of the net off a prostrate Heinze.
Real regained the upper hand with Ruud van Nistelrooy firing wide in the 29th minute but the Spanish champions failed to make their dominance pay and Roma snatched the lead after a positive start to the second half.
Needless
Heinze needlessly tried to cut out a pass forward to Totti, allowing the Roma skipper to turn and thread a perfectly-weighted through-ball to Mancini, who timed his run behind Fabio Cannavaro to perfection and took the ball round Iker Casillas before tapping the ball in from a wide angle.
Roma were then content to sit back and defend their one-goal advantage, restricting Real to a string of hopeful long-range efforts.
Royston Drenthe and Julio Baptista came on to revive the Real attack, and although Ruud van Nistelrooy hit a post in the 80th minute from Drenthe's square ball, they were unable to level the scores heading into the return leg
| Roma |
Team Statistics |
Real Madrid |
| 2 |
Goals |
1 |
| 1 |
1st Half Goals |
1 |
| 3 |
Shots on Target |
3 |
| 4 |
Shots off Target |
10 |
| 2 |
Blocked Shots |
7 |
| 2 |
Corners |
3 |
| 16 |
Fouls |
18 |
| 0 |
Offsides |
3 |
| 3 |
Yellow Cards |
3 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 77.5 |
Passing Success |
84.5 |
| 19 |
Tackles |
24 |
| 68.4 |
Tackles Success |
62.5 |
| 34.7 |
Possession |
65.3 |
| 46.2 |
Territorial Advantage |
53.8 |
|
