Birmingham City almost conquered Europe the last time Roma came to the Midlands

On Thursday night Jose Mourinho's AS Roma will take on Leicester City in the first leg of the Europa Conference League semi-finals - over a half century on from the last time the Italian side visited the Midlands.

On that occasion they took on Birmingham City in the two-legged final of the now-defunct Inter-City Fairs Cup. It may be hard for many Blues supporters to envisage now, but yes, the club were in European competition and, yes, competing in a final. In fact, it was their second such final in as many years.

The Fairs Cup was a predecessor to the Uefa Cup, now known as the Uefa Europa League, and existed between 1955 and 1971. It was unique in that cities rather than clubs were invited to partake by Fifa, not Uefa, as means of promoting trade.

It had a strictly one city, one team rule for a period of time, but Aston Villa refused to field a combined team in the tournament, making Birmingham City the first English club to enter European competition in the 1950s.

Blues more than held their own against sides from around Europe, reaching the last four of the Fairs Cup in 1958 where they were defeated by Barcelona. They won a classic 4-3 tie at St Andrew's but lost 1-0 in Spain before losing 2-1 in a play-off. Barcelona went on to destroy a London XI in the final.

They went one better the following year, reaching the final where they once again came up against the Catalan outfit. Around 40,500 people watched Blues hold Barça to a goalless draw in the home leg. They were completely overpowered at the Camp Nou, however, losing 4-1.

Birmingham would reach the decider yet again the following year after knocking out Hungarian outfit Ujpest and KB of Denmark. They eliminated the mighty Inter Milan in the semi-finals,