Jose Mourinho admits a point against Real Betis ‘gives us life’ in the Europa League, but the Roma coach slammed ‘disastrous’ Tammy Abraham and Andrea Belotti for their first half performance.
The Giallorossi picked up a point in Seville after Andrea Belotti’s goal cancelled out a deflected Sergio Canales opener, even if they had to wait several minutes for VAR to confirm it was not offside.
Betis had until now won every single competitive match on home turf this season, and earned a 2-1 victory at the Stadio Olimpico last week, so it was a solid result.
“It was a game with great pressure, it was not a group game, it was worth a play-off. If we lost today, we were out,” Mourinho told Sky Sport Italia.
“Going into the break a goal down, that is real pressure. Usually, you only sense that in a knockout phase. With all the injuries, suspensions, fatigue, playing against a team with fresh legs, who changed six players from their last game, having the heart to raise the level in the second half… This point gives us life.
“We might even have had the quality to risk more in the final 10-15 minutes, but the important thing was to play with our heads today. We controlled it well, we are alive, there are two games to play and win.
“If we don’t win any of those, we are out. That is good, because it means our destiny is in our hands. We do not need to wait for any other result to go our way.”
This was the first time that Tammy Abraham and Andrea Belotti had started together, but Mourinho was not impressed.
“It was a disaster in the first half, really, really bad. They didn’t do what I asked. They came off at half-time with red ears because I was shouting at them so much.
“It was better after the break, not just for the goal, but also because they worked together.”
Nicolò Zaniolo was suspended today and Paulo Dybala injured, so Mourinho was asked how he could maintain Lorenzo Pellegrini in his very effective trequartista role with Abraham and Belotti together.
“Zaniolo can play left wing-back, if necessary.”