Juan Manuel Iturbe and Seydou Keita gave Roma a 2-1 friendly victory away to AEK Athens.
Juan Manuel Iturbe and Seydou Keita gave Roma a 2-1 friendly victory away to AEK Athens.
The Giallorossi travelled to Greece without Mehdi Benatia, who is reportedly on the verge of joining Bayern Munich for €30m. Miralem Pjanic stayed behind due to fitness issues, while Daniele De Rossi started at centre-back.
Morgan De Sanctis had early work to do on Pantellas, who got in front of Urby Emanuelson to force a save, then the goalkeeper parried both the Mantalos volley and Anakoglu follow-up.
Iturbe wasted a good opportunity set up by Gervinho, but made up for it in first half stoppages by curling a wonderful free kick into the bottom corner.
Straight after the restart Keita doubled Roma’s lead by rising to meet an Alessandro Florenzi free kick.
Zoric failed to make the most of an Alessio Romagnoli error, firing wide one-on-one with De Sanctis. AEK did get a consolation goal late on thanks to a soft Dacol penalty for Romagnoli’s tackle.
Roma could’ve had a third in the final moments of the game, but Keita finished inches past the post.
AEK Athens 1-2 Roma
Scorers: Iturbe 45 (R), Keita 48 (R), Dacol pen 85 (A)
AEK Athens: Anestis; Mpakakis (Sarris 78), Kolovetsios (Svarnas 78), Lambropoulos (Rovas 78), Petavrakis (Brecevic 78); Cordero (Yare Faye 75), Anakoglou (Georgeas 78); Platellas (Ntounis 59), Mantalos (Zoric 46), Barbosa; Aravidis (Dacol 64)
Roma: De Sanctis; Torosidis (Somma 75), De Rossi, Astori (Romagnoli 63), Emanuelson (Cole 75); Keita, Nainggolan (Sanabria 93), Florenzi (Ucan 93); Iturbe (Totti 63), Destro (Paredes 75), Gervinho (Ljajic 63)