The Italians were determined not to concede six, as they had done when we played them in the UEFA Women's Champions League at Stamford Bridge last season. They sat back and defended well, keeping the score locked at 0-0 when the whistle blew for half-time.

Second-half strikes from Ellie Carpenter and Kadeisha Buchanan sealed the win on the night, but the victory was no doubt hard-earned.

Here's a look at how we secured the three points...

Finding our shooting boots

A 2-0 win was a good result, but a look at the overall statistics shows we might have reaped even more rewards for our dominance.

We have now scored three times in three UWCL league phase matches, winning 1-0 against Austria Vienna, drawing 0-0 with Lyon and recording a 2-0 victory against Roma. While head coach Sonia Bompastor has discussed the need to be clinical, she wasn't too concerned about the lack of goals when speaking in her post-match press conference.

'It's good to have this solid defensive base when you want to go far in every competition,' she noted. 'With the quality we have in the team, I'm confident we will always create opportunities, and we just need to be confident we will score some of them.'

Ellie's impact

Roma's steely first-half defensive play made it hard for the Blues to break through their block. But when Carpenter was introduced, the full-back seemed to take it upon herself to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

Beforehand, she had already equalled last season's tally of three goals, and she went about beating it with an explosive run down the inside right channel, laying the ball off to Wieke Kaptein. Her Dutch counterpart understood the assignment: to whip the ball in quickly, back to her team-mate in the middle.

Having made a brilliant run off the ball into the penalty area, Carpenter supplied the finish from close range. Bompastor explained why her introduction at the halfway point would make a difference.

'I was confident with Ellie on the right side,' she said. 'She will put a lot of runs offensively, but also she will make the runs in behind and go in the box. That's what happened, so it's good. She brings a lot of energy when she comes in.'

Hampton's long balls

Goalkeepers need to be better with their feet than ever before, to keep up with the tactical trend of playing the ball out from the back. It's one of the skills that makes Hannah Hampton stand out as one of the best in the world - and it's not only short passes where she excels.

For club and country, the stopper can create chances by picking out the central striker with pinpoint accuracy, and against Roma, her long balls were actually written into the game plan, as our head coach explained afterwards.

'When we analysed Roma, we observed that sometimes they come forward man-marking when we have the ball in build-up, and they leave the space in behind,' she said. 'We spoke before the game about how we could reach that space with the connection between our line and Hannah.

'As you know, she has a long-range strike, and she can hit that space really easily in many ways. We need to keep working on those connections because the timing of the run is really important.'

The statistics show that Hampton connected with 44.4 per cent of her nine passes into the final third of the pitch, an impressive ratio for balls played over such a distance.

On one occasion, the goalkeeper pinged a long pass forward for Aggie Beever-Jones, and if it hadn't been for an excellent last-ditch tackle from the Roma defender, she would certainly have been in a great position to go for goal. These long balls are therefore an element of our play which Blues supporters might see more of in the coming weeks.

Kaptein shines again

Earning the UEFA Player of the Match trophy for her two assists on the evening, midfielder Wieke Kaptein is showing her value as a team player once more.

Picked out for her selfless play in this previous piece, the 21-year-old Dutch international built on her last performance at home in the Women's Champions League in which she scored a stunning long-range effort that was voted by Chelsea fans as our Goal of the Month for September.

Starting in 11 of our 12 matches so far this season, her skill, combined with a team-first work ethic, has made her an invaluable member of the side this season. She's a player who often works quietly in the background, but it's certainly worth paying special attention to how she performs.