Roma saw the vast majority of the ball in the opening exchanges and looked the greater threat, but it was the visitors who took the lead against the run of play with 22 minutes on the clock. A wonderful team move ended with the ball being laid off to Jonathan Rowe, and the forward sent his right-footed effort from the edge of the area flying into the top right-hand corner of the net for one of the goals of the season.
The hosts needed a response, and they managed to find one just after the half-hour mark. After Lorenzo Pellegrini had seen his goal-bound free-kick from 30 yards well saved by Federico Ravaglia, the first-half substitute turned provider as his resulting corner was headed home by Evan Ndicka.
However, in stoppage time, Bologna restored their advantage from the penalty spot with Federico Bernardeschi sending Mile Svilar the wrong way after Stephan El Shaarawy was adjudged to have brought Nadir Zortea down inside the area.
Roma knew it was still very much game on as the second half got underway, but with the hour mark approaching their task became doubly difficult. A header back to Ndicka wasn’t dealt with by the defender, and Santiago Castro capitalised by running onto the loose ball and firing past Svilar to double Bologna’s advantage on the night and on aggregate.
The Giallorossi didn’t initially offer much hope of a comeback, but they were given a lifeline with just over 20 minutes remaining when Remo Freuler brought down Robinio Vaz inside the area, and Donyell Malen converted from the penalty spot for his eighth goal in 11 matches.
The successful spot-kick set up a grandstand finish, and with just over 10 minutes of normal time remaining, the hosts dramatically drew level as Pellegrini’s effort from the edge of the area found the bottom left-hand corner to ensure the tie headed to extra time.
Both sides looked nervy for large periods of extra time, fearing the cost of any errors.
However, the visitors snatched victory 11 minutes before the end when Nicolo Cambiaghi raced onto Thijs Dallinga’s through ball before sneaking his effort past Svilar at his near post to send the vocal away end into rapturous celebration.
After this dramatic victory, their sixth successive win in all competitions, Bologna can now look forward to a quarter-final tie with Aston Villa, where the Rossoblu will be hoping to avenge the 1-0 defeat they suffered to the Villans in the opening round of this season’s league phase.
In contrast, Roma exit the UEL after their fifth consecutive winless match across all competitions.