Seven facts and figures on Viktoria Plzen v Roma

Roma kicked off their Europa League campaign with a 1-1 away draw against Viktoria Plzen on Thursday night.

Diego Perotti opened the scoring from the penalty spot before Marek Bakos equalised with a header for the Czech side.

Read on for seven revealing statistics on the match...

4

Diego Perotti scored his fourth goal of the season against Viktoria Plzen, all of which have come from the penalty spot – three in the league and one in Europe. Currently, he's the top scorer at Roma. The Argentine is thus approaching his best-ever haul for a season, having never previously managed to score more than five goals in one campaign.

8

Since 1927, the Giallorossi have faced eight teams from Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic or Slovakia. Before the country split on 1 January 1993, Roma had played Slavia Prague in the Central European International Cup in 1931, which was also the Giallorossi's debut in Europe. Five years later, Sparta Prague were the opposition in the same competition, then there were two matches against Spartak Trnava in the Mitropa Cup in the 1960s. The next encounters against teams from this part of the world was after the peaceful division of the state: Czech side Slavia Prague in the UEFA Cup in 1996, Slovak outfits Kosice and Slovan Bratislava in the Europa League in 2009 and 2011 respectively, and finally Viktoria Plzen yesterday. The record so far reads five defeats and three draws. Consistently tough opposition.

15

Fabio Capello has taken charge of the most ties in the UEFA Cup and Europa League with 24. However, the Scudetto-winning coach only took part in the tournament's older format and never in the Europa League. As manager, Claudio Ranieri featured in the most UEL games with eight, while Luciano Spalletti in his first spell picked up 10 appearances in the UEFA Cup (2005-06) and now has five in the Europa League to make 15 overall.

41

Aldair has the most appearances in this tournament, in each of its variants. From 1990 to 2003, the Brazilian defender played 50 games in the UEFA Cup. Second in this ranking is Francesco Totti, who has 41 appearances (30 in the UEFA Cup and 11 in the Europa League). The Giallorossi captain is also the club's leading goalscorer in the competition with 21 strikes (10 in the UEFA Cup, 11 in its successor). Damiano Tommasi is third on the podium with 33 games in the UEFA Cup between 1996 and 2006.

46

During the away trip to Viktoria Plzen, Roma have officially kicked off their 46th European campaign since they first began on the continent in 1931. It's also the 33rd time the Giallorossi have competed under UEFA's banner since their debut in the 1969-70 Cup Winners' Cup (when they reached the semi-finals and lost to Gornik Zabrze on the flip of a coin following three draws in the first leg, second leg and replay).

113

In total, Roma have played in 113 games in both the UEFA Cup and the Europa League, more than any other European competition. Their first was in 1975-76 after Nils Liedholm had guided his team to third place the season before. The Giallorossi have featured 94 times in the older version of the competition and 19 times in the UEL, most recently against Viktoria Plzen.

567

It's been a long time since Roma last won on the road in Europe, 567 days in fact. Their last away victory was against Feyenoord in the Netherlands on 26 February 2015 in the Europa League. The team under then coach Rudi Garcia came home with a 2-1 victory thanks to goals from Adem Ljajic and Gervinho, despite Elvis Manu momentarily getting the Dutch side back into the encounter.