Roma defeated Bologna 5-0 at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday night in Serie A.
The Giallorossi made quick work of a Rossoblu side lacking confidence with three goals in the opening 25 minutes from Alessandro Florenzi, Gervinho and Mehdi Benatia before the Ivorian and his replacement Adem Ljajic added two more in the second half.
From the moment Carmine Russo signalled the start of the match there was only ever going to be one winner in this match between early season pace setters and a side yet to taste victory in Serie A this season under Stefano Pioli.
Just eight minutes had past when a free-kick from a seemingly harmless position 30 yards from the Bologna goal was driven powerfully towards Gianluca Curci by Miralem Pjanic only for the goalkeeper to fumble his save into the path of the onrushing Florenzi who nodded home.
The hosts would not wait long for a second though after they broke quickly from a Bologna corner with Vasileois Torosidis and Totti who then played Gervinho through on goal. With Mikael Antonsson giving the Ivorian too much time to consider his options he stepped right of the centre-back and drilled low past Curci.
The Swedish defender was again at fault for the Roma third allowing centre-back Benatia to run practically unmarked onto a Totti corner and volleyed superbly past the Bologna keeper.
With half an hour gone the visitors clearly had no way to deal with Rudi Garcia’s side who were being given far too much time on the ball to play their impressive passing game, aided by the clever movement of their attacking trio.
The Roma dominance was highlighted by Diego Perez’ attempts to stop the impressive Gervinho as the Uruguayan enforcer literally tore the shirt from his back when trying to stop the former Arsenal man.
Shortly before the end of the first half summer signing Kevin Strootman demonstrated the only way the Rossoblu were going to be allowed back into the game when his over confidence presented the ball to Alessandro Diamanti who then shot inches past Morgan De Sanctis’ left-hand post.
After a comparatively slow start to the second period on 61 minutes the Giallorossi were at it again, Gervinho left one-on-one with Antonsson once more, and with the Swede back-tracking he carried the ball from the left just inside the Bologna box before sweeping the ball home for the fourth.
With the game won Roma began to exhibit their defensive resilience, limiting the visitors to long range efforts, however, with 15 minutes remaining midfielder Panagiotis Kone lined up a 35 yard drive that stung the fingers of De Sanctis as he palmed over.
On 85 minutes substitute Ljajic epitomised the Roma performance, breezing past the Bologna defence with ease onto a through ball before delicately chipping Curci from an acute angle to complete the scoring.
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