first-half bate blitz leaves roma befuddled published: tuesday 29 september 2015, 22.47cet bate borisov 3-2 roma bate ensured rudi garcia's 100th match in charge of roma was a disappointing one, stunning their opponents with three first-half goals.
nikolai signevich heads bate into an eighth-minute lead left-back filip mladenovic scores twice before the half-hour mark gervinho gives roma hope midway through the second period vasilis torosidis's 82nd-minute goal sets up a frantic finale next matches: bate v barcelona, bayer leverkusen v roma (20 october)
filip mladenovic struck twice as bate borisov recorded a memorable uefa champions league victory against roma, resisting a second-half comeback from their group e opponents after scoring three times in the first 30 minutes.
rudi garcia endured a miserable 100th match in charge of the giallorossi as bate struck twice early on. they had barely made an incursion of note into the visitors' penalty area when nikolai signevich threaded a pass to maksim volodko, whose cross from the byline flicked up for mikhail gordeichuk to stab an effort against the bar. ıgor stasevich gladly headed in the rebound.
one quickly became two, with mladenovic leaving wojciech szczesny, returning from the finger injury he sustained on matchday one, red faced. with little on, the left-back unleashed a shot from around 30 metres that the polish international, leaving a big gap at his near post, could not scamper across his line to keep out.
the home fans' state of disbelief heightened on the half-hour mark, mladenovic again on target. the left-back raced up field to support volodko, took receipt of the winger's pass and fired over szczesny via the underside of the bar.
garcia responded by bringing on ıago falqué for uefa champions league debutant william vainqueur before the half was out, yet the change initially did little to invigorate the serie a side. falqué, though, set up gervinho to drive under chernik midway through the second period and with roma throwing everything at their hosts, vasilis torosidis turned in lucas digne's low delivery eight minutes from time.
bate, however, held firm to register their first win in nine matches against ıtalian opposition and fourth successive home victory in this season's competition.
