Middlesbrough March on in Europe - Match Report

Boro welcomed back the fit-again Mark Viduka to lead their attack, but Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Stewart Downing were left on the bench by boss Steve McClaren.

The opening minutes saw the home side dominate possession without seriously testing Mark Schwarzer in the Boro goal.

Ten minutes in the Australian keeper got down smartly to divert a Georgios Fotakis free-kick away from danger and a Giorgos Barkoglu set-piece tested Schwarzer just over ten minutes later.

The lone strike on goal by a Middlesbrough player came from Bolo Zenden, but his drive from distance dribbled well wide of target.

Boro also had Anthony McMahon and James Morrison cautioned as the game remained goalless at the break, despite a powerful drive by Barkoglu shortly before the whistle.

Morrison was replaced by Gaizka Mendieta at the interval and soon after the restart Doriva flashed a 25-yard drive just past the far post of Mahamadou Sidibe's goal.

Shortly afterwards Szilard Nemeth's crossfield pass played in Zenden, but he was unable to hit the target from a narrow angle with Sidibe stranded.

Just after the hour Ray Parlour broke clear on the right and won a corner as his cross was cleared, but it came to nothing. Twenty minutes from time the tiring Viduka was replaced by Hasselbaink and Zenden trotted off to make way for Downing.

The impressive young left-winger made his impact 12 minutes from time as Parlour surged through on the right and played the ball across the area for Downing to drill his shot back across Sidibe and into the corner of the net.

Aigaleo did little after that to suggest that they could find a way back into the game as the Boro back four held firm, with Gareth Southgate giving another dominant display.

Deep into stoppage time Schwarzer had to tip over a speculative Ioannis Christou lob to ensure victory.