SOUTH American pair David Pizarro and Alessandro Mancini sank Real Madrid as AS Roma came from behind to take a 2-1 advantage in the first leg of the Champions League second-round clash.

Real captain Raul stunned the Stadio Olimpico with an early goal for the visitors but the hosts held their nerve to hit back and they will take a vital lead to Spain in two weeks’ time.

Roma coach Luciano Spalletti praised his side’s maturity in coming back.

“The team didn’t let Raul’s goal get them down and that shows their maturity,” he said.

Midfielder Daniele De Rossi warned his team about the precarious nature of such a slender lead.

“I don’t want to throw a spanner in the works but I should remind you that we beat Manchester United by the same score last year and everyone knows what happened next,” he said.

Roma took the same 2-1 lead to Old Trafford in the quarter-finals but suffered a humiliating 7-1 thrashing in Manchester.

This was Real’s third away defeat in a row and third defeat in their past four matches, a worrying statistic for coach Bernd Schuster.

“In our last matches away from home we didn’t play well. Tonight we played better but we didn’t take our chances whereas our opponents had two or three chances and converted them. All we lack at the moment is a cutting edge,” he said.

Real had a dream start, taking the lead after just eight minutes. Former Chelsea flyer Arjen Robben scampered down the left and pulled the ball back to Guti arriving late on the edge of the area.

His shot was weak and would have been easily covered by Doni in the Roma goal but Raul cleverly stuck out a boot to divert the ball away from the goalkeeper and into the far corner.

Roma almost hit straight back but Iker Casillas was down quickly to stop Marco Cassetti’s long-range effort.

Former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy then had a goal rightly chalked off for offside before Raul should have doubled the visitors’ lead.

More brilliant wing trickery from Robben, this time on the right, allowed him to create space and cross but Raul criminally headed wide when well placed.

Three minutes later Real were made to pay as Roma equalised.

Brazil winger Mancini got to the left byline and crossed into the centre but Argentina midfielder Fernando Gago got back to block Francesco Totti from striking on goal.

The ball broke to Pizarro on the edge of the box and his drilled effort deflected off the stricken Gago and flew over Casillas into the net.

Totti had been laregly quiet but on 58 minutes he sprang to life to create a goal for Mancini.

Gabriel Heinze over-committed himself and was rolled by Totti 30 yards from Real’s goal. Totti then dissected the defence with a perfectly weighted pass allowing Mancini to run on, round Casillas and squeeze the ball home from a tight angle.

On 67 minutes Doni almost gifted Real a goal as he spilled a shot from Robben but with Raul lurking Brazil centre-back Juan came to his goalkeeper’s rescue and cleared the danger.

With 10 minutes to play Real coach Bernd Schuster made a double change bringing Dutchman Royston Drenthe and Julio Baptista on for Robben and Mahamadou Diarra.

Drenthe almost made an instant impact as he skipped down the right and crossed for van Nistelrooy who was unlucky to see his close range shot come back off the post.

Two minutes later and Baptista also had a chance but he blazed well over after being set up by Raul.