Manchester City were left with a mountain the size of Everest to climb to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League after Roma fought back to level their Group E match 1-1 at the Etihad.
Sergio Aguero continued his good early season goalscoring form, scoring the opener in just the fourth minute of the game after the striker himself won a penalty off Maicon, who unnecessarily tried to stop the Manchester City man with his arm.
If that early goal was thought to be a sign of things to come for Manchester City, looking for their first opening home Champions League win in four years, it proved to be a false dawn, as Roma took control of proceedings.
Francesco Totti was a delight to watch yet again, and the Roma legend became the oldest Champions League scorer in history, at 38 years and three days, courtesy an exquisite chip off the outside of his right boot to level the match at 1-1 midway through the first half.
"It's a historic and important goal -- especially for the team, more than personally," Totti told UEFA's official website. "I am happy with the performance. We came here to play an open game and we played one of the best games Roma have ever produced in Europe.
"I am proud to have achieved [the oldest goalscorer record], without any doubt, but I hope to carry on and not stop here. I've said before, I am 38, but I don't feel it."
Roma, it must be said were by and large the better side with former Arsenal man Gervinho causing plenty of problems down the wings, while playmaker Radja Nainngolan, who played the through ball for Totti to provide that delightful finish past Joe Hart, also quite impressive.
Manchester City did give it a go towards the end, but by then that lingering feeling of another underwhelming Manchester City performance had taken charge.
"A point at home is never good but we played against a very strong team in a good moment," Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini was quoted as saying by UEFA's official website. "We didn't play in the way we normally do to score goals.
"In the last 20 minutes it was more similar to the team we see here every week, but the draw happened over 90 minutes.
"It was not our day. We didn't play well in the first half -- we started well but then we lost the ball too easily. The biggest problem was that we missed many easy passes.
"It was no surprise to me how strong Roma are, they are in form and have great players. They made it difficult but we could have won it in the last 20 minutes."
The draw put Manchester City precariously placed in third place, even if there are four more matches to go, with Bayern Munich, courtesy their 1-0 win over CSKA Moscow earlier in the day topping Group E on six points.
Roma are second on four points, and if Rudi Garcia's men continue to play in the same manner for the next four games, then Manchester City could well be staring at another early exit from the Champions League.
Manchester City vs Roma 1-1 by mysoulmate301
