Jose Mourinho aimed further sideswipes at the media, Sassuolo and Domenico Berardi for lacking ‘fair play’, as the Roma coach would speak only in Portuguese through an interpreter.
The controversy in the build-up to this match saw Mourinho claim in his press conference that he was ‘worried’ about referee Matteo Marcenaro and the VAR, predicting there would be an early yellow card for Gianluca Mancini.
Instead, the officiating proved decisive in their favour, as VAR recalled Marcenaro to give Daniel Boloca a straight red card, then Paulo Dybala converted a penalty before Rasmus Kristensen saw his finish deflected off Ruan Tressoldi to complete the comeback from an opening Matheus Henrique goal.
There was more confusion when Mou arrived for the post-match interview with DAZN and insisted on speaking only in Portuguese, translated by the interpreter that was provided by the club.
“I want to thank the club and director Tiago Pinto, who over the last 24 hours gave me the support and therefore the emotional stability that allows me to do my work,” started Mourinho.
This was a pointed reference to his own criticism of referee Marcenaro.
“They showed faith in me. This was a very important, hard-fought and deserved victory, because even when we were a goal down, Roma were still the best team on the pitch.
“I am very happy with the players and all our fans. I want to dedicate this to my fantastic assistant manager, Salvatore Foti, who was not here today but worked very hard to help us achieve the victory.”
Mourinho has been in Italy for many years, first at Inter and this is his third season at Roma, and has spoken excellent Italian since the very first day. So speaking Portuguese felt like he was mocking the media.
“The reason I am speaking Portuguese is that my Italian is not sufficiently polished to express certain concepts. When I talked about emotional stability, I was referring to a quality that in life and in football is necessary to perform at the highest level,” continued the coach.
There was still time for one final sideswipe at Sassuolo and Berardi, because a member of the Roma staff was sent off from the touchline in stoppages for withholding the ball and not allowing them to resume play quickly.
“As for the situation that caused some irritation in the Sassuolo staff and fans when we did not give the ball back quickly, I went over to my colleague and simply said that to receive fair play, it is necessary to first give it and there is a player in the Sassuolo squad who is lacking in that area.”