Roma cruise to easy victory at home to Torino

Roma responded to Juventus' record-breaking hammering of Parma with a convincing 3-0 home victory over Torino but the Giallorossi remain three points behind their title rivals.

Juve earlier scored seven goals without reply to deal hapless Parma their worst ever Serie A defeat and pull six points clear of Roma, who responded with a fine display at the Stadio Olimpico.

Francesco Totti pulled the strings for both Vasilis Torosidis' opener and a sumptuous second-half strike from Adem Ljajic while Seydou Keita opened his account for Roma in between times.

Torino, meanwhile, drop one place to 14th after suffering a third straight away defeat.

Earlier events in Turin meant the Romans had no choice but to strive for a resounding home win, and their determination to hammer Torino was evident.

Their veteran captain Totti appeared especially fired up and was the architect behind most of Roma's best moves.

He sent Ljajic into the box in the fifth minute - the Serb blasted over the crossbar - and promptly set up Torosidis for the opener.

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Totti's clever pass found his Greek team-mate in good space on the right and the searing finish was too hot for Jean-Francois Gillet to handle.

Torino almost equalised against the run of play when Fabio Quagliarella forced Morgan de Sanctis into a flying save but Roma were soon rushing down the other end to harass Gillet again.

Miralem Pjanic's quick movement opened a small gap and the playmaker used it to thrash the ball against the bar with his right boot.

In the 27th minute Keita scored his first Serie A goal.

This time it was Pjanic who provided the assist, the Bosnian sending Keita on a run across the D and once again Gillet was helpless to resist the final flourish.

Totti started teasing the Torino backline - his pass from deep to Gervinho initiated an exciting one-on-one with Gillet - and he even tried his luck with a cheeky chip from 20 metres out.

One minute into first-half stoppage time he fed Gervinho again, but the Ivorian fell over his own feet in the penalty area.

Torino pushed back with aggression when play resumed but there was no avoiding the third goal and - when it came - it was spectacular.

A brilliant piece of skill from Totti released Ljajic, who loped onto the ball before unleashing a fearsome drive from 20 yards that whistled past Gillet and into the back of the net.

Torino enjoyed some late exploration behind the hosts' backline and De Sanctis did well to push Bruno Peres' rasper out for a corner.

Nevertheless Roma recovered control and Gervinho soon netted what would have been a fourth goal had he not been ruled offside.

The 84th minute saw Dutch midfielder Kevin Strootman emerge from the bench to make his long-awaited comeback from injury, providing yet more reason to be cheerful for the Roma faithful.