Roma Thrash Slovan Bratislava 4-0 for First Champions League Win

Roma beat Slovan Bratislava 4-0 at the Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday night, their first victory of the Champions League season. The match was played on 20 October, and the score was reported by UEFA.

Roma needed the win. They had lost late to Real Madrid in their previous European outing, so this was a chance to get back on track. Slovan, a club from the Slovak capital, were the visitors in front of a big home crowd. The club had expected more than 60,000 supporters at the stadium.

The Champions League is Europe's biggest club competition, and every win counts for the table. After this result, ESPN lists Roma as moving up to 13th place in the standings. The same report gives Roma's expected goals, a measure of how good the chances were, at 3.58. Slovan's figure was 0.02.

Those numbers tell a simple story. Roma kept creating good chances, and Slovan rarely got near the Roma goal. Yahoo Sports described the visitors as overmatched in its match report.

Roma's coach, Gasperini, spoke to the club's website after the game. He said the team was clearly in good shape. Coming after a defeat, a result like this gives a squad something to build on, even though one win does not settle a group.

The club's own match report, titled simply "Roma 4 0 Slovan Bratislava", covers the same evening from the home side's point of view. For Roma's fans, the main thing is the scoreboard. It is the first time this season that the Olimpico has been able to cheer a Champions League win.

Next up, Roma will look to turn this result into a run of form. Slovan will be looking for a better night, but for now the story is the one on the scoreboard.