Radja: Now we must finish the job at home

The Giallorossi took the lead at the Estadio do Dragao through a Felipe own goal before Thomas Vermaelen saw red for a second bookable offence in the 41st minute.

The hosts then equalised through an Andre Silva penalty after the break but Luciano Spalletti's men held on valiantly to leave Portugal with a draw and an away goal.

“Playing for nearly an hour with ten men really drains your energy,” the Belgian midfielder said after the match. “We fought hard and came under more pressure in the second half, as you'd expect.

“But we've come away with a good result and now we have to finish the job at home.”

Roma might have been heading into the second leg at the Olimpico in an even better position had they been able to finish off some of the chances created in the opening 45 minutes, when they looked rampant at times.

“We could have scored three or four in the first half but that's football.

“It's tough playing a man down in the first game of the season. We need to keep getting minutes under our belts and improving our fitness. You can't expect to be 100% in your first game but we still managed to clock up plenty of miles today.”

Before attentions turn to next Tuesday's decisive return leg, the Giallorossi kick off their 2016-17 Serie A campaign with a home game against Udinese.

“We'll focus on Saturday now because we have to get off to a good start in the league,” Nainggolan continued. “We must set out to win every game. First we'll concentrate on Udinese and after that we have another tough game.”