Following Thursday’s Europa League quarterfinal victory for his Roma team, Jose Mourinho took aim at Serie A rivals Juventus and Lazio.
In the second leg of their last-16 tie, Roma earned a 0-0 draw at Real Sociedad, winning 2-0 on aggregate.
In an interview with Sky Sport Italia following the game, Mourinho couldn’t help but make an indirect reference to Juventus, who also advanced against Freiburg, claiming they should not have been allowed to advance to the Europa League after being eliminated from the Champions League group stage.
He did, however, specifically mention Lazio, who were defeated 2-1 on Thursday by AZ Alkmaar, losing 4-2 on aggregate to exit the Europa Conference League.
“I don’t care about the draw, there are teams there that in my opinion shouldn’t be there, because whoever is eliminated in a competition has to go home,” he said. “If a team that has been eliminated from the Champions League wins, it doesn’t mean anything to me because we’ve been here from the beginning.
“Lazio? They won’t have a third competition to play in.”
Roma had to soak up pressure against La Real, facing 19 shots to three and only having 24 percent possession.
“After the 2-0 first leg [win], the home team risks everything and does everything possible,” Mourinho said. “They did everything with the support from the stadium, but the boys today had everything, the ambition to score in the first 15-20 minutes where we dominated and pressed, then we controlled the counter-attack well.
“We never stopped looking for the goal, even when [Tammy] Abraham and [Stephan] El Shaarawy came on, congratulations to the boys, it’s thanks to them. It’s a very strong Europa League, we have eliminated two quality opponents and we are in the quarter-finals with many top-level teams.”
Mourinho has enjoyed plenty of success in Europe, winning two Champions League, two UEFA Cup/Europa Leagues, and last year’s inaugural Europa Conference League.
Roma will enter Friday’s last-eight draw along with Juventus, Manchester United, Feyenoord, Sporting CP, Sevilla, Bayer Leverkusen, and Union Saint-Gilloise.
“We are not the strongest team in the world but we are a group that knows how to stay together,” he added.
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