CSKA Sofia were decisively beaten 3-0 by Roma in Sofia as Alessandro Cerci struck a brace, and Felippo Scardina netted in the third in the dying minutes of the match to wrap up the final score and secure the Italian side pole position in the Uefa Europa League Group E.

This victory means Roma will be seeded in the draw in Nyon on December 18 2009. Meanwhile, English side Fulham, who beat Basel 3-2 away in the group match, have secured themselves second place in the group, two points adrift from the Italians.

Bogdan Lobonţ twice denied CSKA in the opening stages of the game, in what was his first ever European outing this season. He made a brilliant save first from Spas Delev and then an equally spectacular one to deny Kostadin Stoyanov whose strike was sailing for the top corner. Then, as the half progressed, Stefano Okaka Chuka fired at Zdravko Chavdarov with a header while Marco Andreolli intercepted a corner kick that struck the woodwork.

Roma went up at the stroke of half time as Cerci was on target, only for the young Italian to score his second for the night five minutes after the restart.

At that point, CSKA Sofia had only managed to scored twice in the previous five group matches and as the second half ticked on, it looked progressively uncertain that they would manage to pull one back. CSKA enjoyed a good spell in the first half, and could have - and should have - scored on at least two occasions, but their drive was progressively undermined as the second half ebbed away.

The Bulgarians were struggling to cope with Roma's superior passing and well organised defence and were eventually limited to  long range attempts on target, where on one such occasion midway through the second half, Lobont was forced to make a fine save from Svetoslav Petrov's 30 metre strike.

But another Bulgarian surge forward in the search of a consolation goal led to their being dispossessed, resulting in a swift counter-attack by the visitors. Perrotta set up an unmarked Scardina, who surged into the area and calmly beat Zdravko Chavdarov to make it 3-0.