It will be a minor cup, but Mourinho’s Roma know that the Conference League is a unique opportunity to secure a title this season. In its debut in the recently opened European competition, the Italian team beat CSKA Sofía (5-1) with a hand in a match where the main protagonist was Pellegrini, who scored a double. The two goals by the Italian player, targeted by Barça, and goals by El Shaarawy, Mancini and Abraham traced Carey’s initial goal and gave Roma their first three points in the tournament.
The other two big winners of the day who aspire to go far in the Conference League were Slavia Prague and Copenhagen. Accustomed to playing Champions or Europa League in recent years, both beat Union Berlin and Slovan Bratislava, respectively, by the same result: 1-3.
For their part, Norwegian Bodo / Glimt easily beat Ucanian Zorya (3-1) while Lask beat HJK Helsinki (0-2), PAOK beat Gibraltarian Lincoln (0-2), Gent beat Flora (0-1), Partizan al Anarthosis (0-2) and Jablonec al Cluj (1-0) in a very prolific day in general for the visiting teams. The rest of the matches ended in a draw.