Jose Mourinho admits Roma made life difficult for themselves by leaving ‘the door open’ for Udinese, but his celebrations at the 3-1 victory saw him hug ‘the first person I saw.’
The Giallorossi struggled a little in the second half when Florian Thauvin cancelled out the opening Gianluca Mancini header.
“It is our fault that happened, because we could’ve closed it off earlier, but we left the door open,” Mourinho told DAZN.
“There was a very strong reaction. I had players on the bench who could help me.”
However, a wonderful team move allowed them to restore their advantage with Paulo Dybala on the Romelu Lukaku assist, then Stephan El Shaarawy’s curler sealed the 3-1 scoreline.
It is curious that many of Roma’s goals this season have been scored in stoppages.
“I feel like we’re trying to break records for goals scored in the final minutes. We also seem to prefer scoring goals when it is under the Curva Sud.”
Even Mourinho let go and celebrated wildly at the third goal from El Shaarawy.
“I celebrated because it was the goal that finished the game. With those substitutions, we lost defensive intensity and I did not feel terribly secure. When I realised that goal killed off the match, I relaxed and hugged a child near the bench. I had to hug the first person I saw, fortunately it wasn’t a policeman or something.”
When asked if Roma could start Sardar Azmoun with Dybala and Lukaku, the Special One was unimpressed.
“We had got a little unbalanced with Azmoun and Paulo together. Azmoun is a profile I love, but he is missing something in his defensive capabilities to be a real Mourinho player. Dybala is not that disciplined defensively either, so you can manage with one like that, but not two.”
This result sends Roma into fifth place and back in contention for a Champions League spot and the injury list is also whittling down, so is Mourinho feeling more confident?
“No. We are a team with ups and downs, some days I am surprised in a bad way. I just want to say that if Renato Sanches and Chris Smalling return, then we can give it our all.”
Mou had said in yesterday’s press conference that he wanted Roma players to be less nice and more like ‘bandits.’
“Usually you are born a bandit, you are not made. I was definitely born a bandit in football, I try to influence and we’ll see if I manage it.”