Jose Mourinho blames the ‘plastic pitch’ for Gianluca Mancini’s knee injury, but despite the 2-1 defeat to Bodo/Glimt, he insists Roma ‘are the favourites to reach the Conference League semi-final.’

The Giallorossi have now played the Norwegians three times, losing both trips to Bodo and drawing 2-2 at the Stadio Olimpico.

They had taken the lead here through Lorenzo Pellegrini, but Bodo/Glimt turned it around through an Ulrik Saltnes deflection on the Brice Wembangomo effort and a late Hugo Vetlesen free header on a set play.

It is an improvement from the 6-1 defeat here in October, but still another blow for Roma on the European stage, meaning they need to win the second leg by two clear goals.

“The two goals were from a set play and a deflection. We score a lot of goals from set play too, but it’s a good one to score, a bad one to concede. The first goal was ridiculous,” Mourinho told Sky Sport Italia.

“To be honest, the thing that worries me the most is the injury for Mancini. It’s a concern, it’s something caused by playing on a plastic turf.”

Mancini went off in the second half with what appeared to be a knee injury, so that will require scans.

“We lost 2-1, we have the second leg to play at the Olimpico in front of our fans and I have no problem saying right now that I feel we are the favourites to reach the semi-final.

“I have total faith in my players, in the stadium, the support from our people. Obviously, Bodo/Glimt are a difficult team, but I also have faith we will have a good referee and assistant in the second leg.

“When we played in Rome against them, were two very clear penalties for us that the referee did not see, while today there were two moves that were flagged offside and the first half ended with a ridiculous situation as the offside flag was up on a throw-in, which shows you the level.”

Pellegrini was on target with another impressive strike, but Mourinho was still not satisfied.

“He needs to score more. Considering the quality of the player, he ought to be scoring more goals.”

4 thought on “Mourinho rants at ‘plastic pitch’ and insists Roma remain favourites”
  1. Always an excuse with Jose.

    I’m sure they will fo through, but I won’t be the only one laughing if they don’t!

  2. Lupo, Roma haven’t been playing good football in the 15 years I’ve been watching Serie A so I can’t see how the material a pitch is made out of would influence that.

  3. Chris2,
    Overall, in the last 20 years, Roma probably played the most attacking football in Italy, rivalled only by Napoli in that time span.
    But if by “good football” you mean winning 1-0 while having 2 shots on goal per game, then I proudly agree that Roma is the worst at that.

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