Christian Panucci opened the scoring, but an injury-ravaged Roma crumbled to a shock 2-1 home defeat against debutants Cluj.

The Giallorossi have had a shaky start to Serie A with one point from their first two games and faced this Euro test with a number of injury worries. Daniele De Rossi recovered from a neck strain to start, but Juan, Philippe Mexes and David Pizarro were out with Francesco Totti only fit for the bench. Luciano Spalletti fielded a makeshift central defence with Christian Panucci and Marco Cassetti, leaving Simone Loria on the sidelines.

Cluj made their all-time Champions League debut under Italian Coach Maurizio Trombetta, having become the first non-Bucharest team to win the Romanian League in 17 years.

Stancioiu smothered a fierce Mirko Vucinic free kick, but Youssuf Kone' pounced on a Cassetti error to test Alexandre Doni from the edge of the box.

Vucinic was extremely unlucky not to break the deadlock on 14 minutes, as he was denied by the woodwork when running on to Alberto Aquilani's long pass over the top of the defence.

The pressure was on and Roma took the lead moments later. Panucci was the scorer with his 10th in the Champions League, a well-timed header to get on the end of De Rossi's cross from the right from six yards. The midfielder did well to battle for the ball at the by-line with Culio and immediately put it back into the centre.

Cluj had until then been clammed up, but had to change their game plan and Doni pushed a Dubarbier left-foot effort out from under the bar. It proved effective, as Juan Culio - who had lost the ball for Roma's opener, combined with Dani's backheel to smash a daisy-cutter past Doni from the edge of the box.

Roma seemed a little shell-shocked and Trica skimmed the target, then on 39 minutes Doni had to rescue his teammates from a very dangerous counter-attack, getting down to parry Dani's angled drive.

Panucci was clutching his back before the break and, although he came out for the second half, he was clearly in pain and made way for Simone Loria 60 seconds later. The former Siena man is also not a central defender, but had to adapt in this emergency situation.

It showed, as Juan Culio incredibly gave Cluj the lead in Rome! Cassetti's header turned into a perfect assist for Culio's splendid left-foot volley from 10 yards!

Roma were stunned and jeered by their own fans, so they threw on the talisman Totti in place of a disappointing John Arne Riise, pulling Vucinic into wide midfield and Max Tonetto as left-back.

Cluj had their tails up, though, and Muresan's powerful free kick skimmed the far post. Totti tried to liven up his side with a header deflected out for a corner. Cicinho risked a red card, but the referee considered his tussle with Culio running towards Doni to be fair.

Panic set in and the Giallorossi started to punt hopeful balls forward in the hope of achieving a breakthrough. Julio Baptista, who was largely anonymous, turned a header well over.

De Rossi placed a trademark free kick inches over the bar and Totti hesitated in a good position, but Cluj were in control. The Romanian minnows should've gone 3-1 up on 70 minutes, but substitute Sixto Peralta's twisting header cracked the underside of the crossbar.

De Rossi and Vucinic's finishing left something to be desired. Spalletti made a surprise switch for his final substitution, as Jeremy Menez had been warming up, but he introduced veteran Vincenzo Montella instead for Rodrigo Taddei. This moved Baptista and Vucinic out wide with two centre-forwards.

Doni flung himself at a Kone' counter-attack and Peralta wasted a promising counter-attack. In stoppages Totti had a touched-on free kick charged down by the wall, but they seemed totally lacking in invention. Stancioiu smothered a deflected Tonetto attempt to close a disastrous evening.