José Mourinho believes his experience in European finals is not helpful and confirms Henrikh Mkhitaryan is available for tomorrow’s clash against Feyenoord.
The Giallorossi will play their first European Finals in 31 years tomorrow, trying to lift the Conference League in Tirana.
“We’ve got to the end of the season with two finals to play in four days. The first one gave us what we deserved, which is the Europa League,” Mourinho said at a press conference.
“We managed to win that final. We have another target to reach. For Roma, it’s natural to get a European placement, we haven’t made history. But this final is history. We’ve written it to get till here, but now we must give our all to finish the job.”
The Giallorossi have already qualified for next season’s Europa League thanks to a 3-0 win over Torino on Friday. They were without Mkhitaryan, who trained with the team at Trigoria today and is available for tomorrow’s game.
The former Manchester United and Arsenal star had picked up an injury in the Conference League semis against Leicester City at the beginning of May.
“Mkhitaryan trained for the first time with the group today, a brief session which was pretty meaningless because it was open to the media. Very basic,” said Mourinho.
“It was important for him and I trust his experience. He knows his body and at the end of the training session, he told me that he is available.”
The Special One has already won the Europa League and the Champions League during his career but believes his experience won’t be helpful.
“It’s a Final. Until tomorrow, there will be nothing else in my head. That’s the way I am,” he explained.
“Experience doesn’t help, contrary to what I thought. I feel the same as in my first final. I am focused. Perhaps that’s my way of preparing for games.”
Roma have finished sixth in Serie A this season and have already qualified for the 2022-23 Europa League. The Giallorossi haven’t won a trophy since 2008, when they lifted the Coppa Italia under Luciano Spalletti.