Diminished their hopes of progress in this competition may be, but in the grandest of settings and against quality opposition an inspired Newcastle United produced their best performance in over two years last night.
They still lost but not since Faustino Asprilla prodded three past Barcelona have Newcastle shown such authority and while Francesco Totti's second-half penalty makes Roma favourites, Bobby Robson must have derived huge confidence for the other battles which lie ahead for his team.
Given Roma's startling result against Lazio last Sunday and the fact that the only side to beat Roma here this season are Juventus, the scale of Newcastle's task was obvious. All they have in common with Juventus at the moment are big salaries and black and white stripes.
Then again, Newcastle's only away victories to date came in Sofia and Zurich in the previous two rounds. As expected young Aaron Hughes was awarded the daunting job of stifling the pulsing Rome heartbeat, their captain Totti. Hughes initially succeeded in a remarkably bright opening half from United, and offered a fine example to his colleagues.
They in turn copied his example, particularly in defence where Warren Barton and Nikos Dabizas were displaying resolution and no little skill.
That gave Newcastle a solid platform and from it they even created the first decent chance in the 16th minute. Francesco Antonioli was forced into a good low save to his right when Temuri Ketsbaia pinged in a shot from 15 yards after a Nolberto Solano corner had been half cleared.
Perhaps surprised by Newcastle's boldness, the home response was pretty tame and the manager Fabio Capello's dismay was apparent from his touchline agitation.
Apart from one header from Zago and a long range shot from Assuncao, the Roma threat was minimal until five minutes before half-time when Cafu raised the tempo and Newcastle's stress levels with two useful efforts from outside the area.
The first of these struck Barton's raised hands, but Roma's claims were muted, much like the reception they received on re-emerging for the second period. Rather fortuitously, Roma got the injection they wanted.
From the first challenges after the re-start it was not obvious where it would come from, but in the 51st minute Laurent Charvet was a fraction slower than Marco Delvecchio to a loose ball and without much invitation Delvecchio went to ground.
The referee Claude Colombo pointed to the spot immediately, but it was a debatable decision.
There was, however, no ambiguity about Totti's expertly-taken penalty stroked forcefully into Steve Harper's bottom corner.
It leaves Newcastle nicely poised for the return leg in a fortnight's time.
ROMA: Antonioli, Rinaldi, Aldair, Zago, Cafu, Assuncao, Di Francesco, Candela, Totti, Montella, Delvecchio. Subs Not Used: Lupatelli, Zanetti, Bartelt, Alenichev, Tommasi, Gourenko, Pereira. Booked: Zago, Aldair, Totti. Goals: Totti 51 pen.
NEWCASTLE: Harper, Barton, Charvet, Dabizas, Pistone, Hughes, Solano, Lee, Speed, Ketsbaia (Robinson 81), Shearer. Subs Not Used: Karelse, Maric, Glass, McClen, Serrant, Caldwell. Booked: Shearer. Attendance: 45,655.
Referee: C Colombo (France).
