Roma denied opening day win in Verona

Roma have been held to a 1-1 draw by Hellas Verona in their opening game of the Serie A season at Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi.

The away side, who finished second in the league last season, handed debuts to on-loan Premier League trio Wojciech Szczesny, Mohamed Salah and Edin Dzeko.

Radja Nainggolan came close to giving Roma the lead midway through the first half when his shot from inside the area was smothered by Verona goalkeeper Rafael, and Dzeko tested the Brazilian soon afterwards.

Dzeko and Gervinho narrowly missed the target with efforts before Verona nearly went in front when Daniele de Rossi cleared Bosko Jankovic's header off the line.

Verona started the second half well and Szczesny had to be alert to deny both Emil Hallfredsson and Juanito Gomez, before Jankovic met Hallfredsson's ball at the far post to give the home side a shock lead.

The advantage lasted just five minutes, however, as Alessandro Florenzi hit a spectacular strike into the top corner from 25 yards to level the scores.

Rafael made superb late saves from Miralem Pjanic and Nainggolan as Roma pressed for a winner, but in the end, the Giallorossi had to settle for a single point.