Real Zaragoza won on the night but lost on away goals as plucky Aris showed that finishing counts. The visitors grabbed a vital away goal to net an impressive overall victory against a bigger club, although it could on another night have gone Zaragoza's way. That's testament to the home side's guts - they never gave up in the attack - but a scathing indictment of their inability to find a final ball and finish against a packed box. (No doubt their Liga opponents will take note.)

Aris went with their regular wide attack in a 4-2-3-1, the only somewhat odd inclusiong being Siston in defence, but his recent performances had been fine anyway; still, the selection almost didn't pay off when Aris shipped an early goal. Zaragoza needed to go for it but opted for their usual 4-4-2, until the equaliser at least - Oliveira getting back on form with a goal while the fullbacks seemed to revel in their new freedom to burst forward.

Aris sat back to start with and, initially, it paid off, but after a sustained period of pressure it was Zaragoza who took the lead. Oliveira, back on form, towered about the defence to nod home after his partner Diego Milito lofted a cross to him. Zaragoza continued to press but found the box packed at every turn, and able to deal with both high and low passes into the box. Goalkeeper Chalkias, too, was commanding his area nicely, and that's what kept the scores level going into half time.

Zaragoza had plenty more chances after the interval but found themselves hit on the counter with a vital away goal, the ball breaking to Javito, who strode forward and struck low. Cesar stopped it, but it broke back to the substitute midfielder, who  shot through the keeper's legs. It was a real sucker punch, and somewhat lucky, but a nice finish. After that strike, Gabi joined Sergio Garcia in being brought on, replacing Cuartero at right back to add some extra attacking spark. That proved a wise move from Victor Fernandez as Zaragoza retook the advantage. Garcia headed home a cross from the rejuvenated Andres D'Alessandro as the blanquillos forced the issue; still they attacked, but Aris came close on the counter once more - it seemed inevitable to end in an "away win" on aggregate as Aris intelligently began to run down the clock.

Zaragoza went out with a plan, and had plenty of effort, but it ultimately wasn't enough as Javito got that vital away goal. The team was set up corretly - if a little exposed - but lacked luck and (more damninginly) cutting edge. For a side with this much firepower to devote all its energies to attacking yet still managing only to score once is not good enough, and that must improve. Aris, meanwhile, had the counterattack down to a T, even if the finish was lucky, but can reflect on a very close fought game that could have gone the other way. Still, over two legs, few would say that it wasn't at least deserved.