rampant roma outclass aris published: friday 16 september 2005, 0.15cet as roma 5-1 aris thessaloniki fcan inspired performance from alberto aquilani and two goals from christian panucci saw roma run wild.
alberto aquilani inspired as roma to an impressive 5-1 win in the home leg of their uefa cup first-round tie against aris thessaloniki fc.
exemplary display the midfielder opened the scoring within seconds of the kick-off and then laid on goals for cristian panucci and vincenzo montella as luciano spalletti's side secured a comprehensive victory against their greek opponents.
perfect start montella's cross set up aquilani to beat evangelos pourliotopoulos within the first minute of the game, and roma were 2-0 up after 21 minutes when panucci found the target with a powerful header from aquilani's cross moments after montella had hit the post.
montella rewarded montella was soon to get the reward for his efforts as his close-range shot seven minutes later left pourliotopoulos helpless, but aris showed some signs of resistance in the 40th minute as fernando sanjurjo crashed a fine drive past gianluca curci to pull it back to 3-1.
totti on target roma were not to be denied, though, and with 44 minutes on the clock they restored their three-goal advantage as panucci's bouncing header ricocheted off a defender and into the net. eight minutes after the break it was 5-1 as francesco totti converted a free-kick.
late chance totti would have made it 6-1 but his effort was disallowed for offside with 15 minutes of the game remaining. aris also had a chance to put a milder complexion on the scoreline, as konstantinos nebegleras fired narrowly wide of curci's left post with time ticking away.
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