A rare Champions League goal from Roma’s top scorer Edin Dzeko helped them see off the difficult test of a stubborn Qarabag side with a 2-1 win in Baku.
His record in this competition has been disappointing in comparison with his Serie A statistics in recent years but a well-taken finish after Kostas Manolas’ opener was enough for a deserved, if occasionally nervy, victory.
After drawing their opening game of the tournament against Atletico Madrid, Roma came out swinging from the start, clearly keen to avoid dropping any further points ahead of a massive double-header against Chelsea.
It paid off after just seven minutes when a flap from goalkeeper Ibrahim Sehic saw the ball fall to Lorenzo Pellegrini and he volleyed into the six-yard box where Manolas met it with a diving header for his first goal of the campaign.
Although he has been in good form domestically of late, Champions League goals have been significantly harder to come by for Dzeko who entered the game with just two goals in his last 17 games in the competition.
He brought that tally to three in 18 on 15 minutes when a fantastic flowing move which started at the back ended with Stephan El Shaarawy knocking the ball down in the area for the Bosnian, who emphatically finished via the crossbar.
However, the home side soon recovered from their slack start and pulled one back midway through the half when no Roma player tracked the run of Pedro Henrique and he collected a Dino Ndlovu pass before dispatching the ball beyond Alisson.
El Shaarawy and Gregoire Defrel both had half chances before the interval to restore the two-goal advantage but failed to do so as Roma went in at the break looking good to extend Italians sides’ all-time unbeaten run against Azerbaijani opposition to seven games.
The Lupi started the second half as they had the first and Eusebio Di Francesco’s attacking influence was evident as his full-backs Aleksandar Kolarov and Bruno Peres both got forward to try their luck from inside the area.
Things weren’t always easy for the Giallorossi, who suffered through some scary moments in the closing stages, but they saw things out reasonably comfortably in Azerbaijan to move on to four points ahead of their double header against Antonio Conte and co.
