Gervinho, Roma Make It Look Easy in Champions League Group of Death

Following a match in which he scored twice, picked up an assist and relentlessly tortured opposition defenders until his withdrawal in the 71st minute, Gervinho could only shrug at his memorable Champions League debut for AS Roma.

“There are no easy games, but we made it look easy,” he told Sky Sport Italia following the capital outfit’s 5-1 demolition of CSKA Moscow on Wednesday, according to Football-Italia.

Did they ever.

Barely five minutes had ticked off the clock when Gervinho picked out Juan Iturbe with a long, succulent pass that put the Argentine through to score.

Then, in the 10th minute, he got his own name on the scoresheet when he accepted Iturbe’s ball near the centre-spot, teased it out of Mario Fernandes’ path and stabbed it past CSKA goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev with a pair of defenders falling dizzily to the ground in front of him.

He was just getting started.

Shortly after the half-hour mark, and with Roma now 3-0 up thanks to Maicon’s 20th-minute tally, the 27-year-old ran onto Francesco Totti’s pass down the right, cut inside on his left foot and drilled a shot past Akinfeev from the edge of the six-yard box.

Roma were putting on a show at the Stadio Olimpico, and Gervinho was providing the entertainment.

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VINE: Gervinho puts Roma 4-0 up. What a start! #UCL http://t.co/70UH9dwbhF

— LiveFootball (@livefootball) September 17, 2014"

Upon his exit midway through the second half, the former Arsenal attacker had completed 96 percent of his passes in addition to his hand in three Roma goals and rightfully came off to a standing ovation.

“It was a great performance,” gushed the typically understated Rudi Garcia in a post-match interview with Sport Mediaset, as per Football-Italia. “CSKA are not the weakest team. This is why I want to underline our great performance. It seemed easy by the result, but it wasn’t remotely easy beforehand.”

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Garcia, who was appointed Roma manager ahead of last season, will have no doubt been delighted by his team’s Wednesday display, although the type of football his players showcased was nothing less than what he has been trying to instill in them for more than a year.

A former physio and scout, the Frenchman is a micro-manager of the old school, and after rising to prominence at the helm of a very attractive Lille side between 2008 and 2013, he has transplanted his quick-tempo, one- and two-touch ball-movement game to Serie A and, it would now seem, the Champions League as well.

Naturally, Roma’s biggest tests are yet to come, what with upcoming matches against Group E rivals Bayern Munich and Manchester City. But Garcia is confident his side will ride its current form into contention in the bracket, and given Wednesday’s result it’s well near impossible to doubt him.

“We started on the right foot, maybe two right feet,” he said, “And now we go to Manchester with more confidence.”

Gervinho, for his part, is only concerned with how he and his teammates execute Garcia’s game plan.

“The most important thing is my team, so I am not worried about the results of other teams,” he explained to Sky Sport Italia, as per Football-Italia. “We just need to focus on ourselves—what we need to do and the next challenge.”

It just so happens that Roma, given the magnitude of their win, have themselves become a challenge for everyone else.