Jose Mourinho thanks his Roma players for their ‘sacrifice’ to play through injuries and hold out Real Sociedad, but insists clubs like Juventus ‘shouldn’t be there’ in the Europa League quarter-final draw.
The Giallorossi had a 2-0 first leg lead and defended it tooth and nail in San Sebastian, holding out with defensive blocks, Rui Patricio saves and the crossbar on Mikel Oyarzabal.
Chris Smalling had also put the ball in the net during the first half, but it was disallowed for handball when he bundled a Paulo Dybala corner over the line.
“When they are 2-0 down, the home team risks everything to turn things around. They did well with their fans, marvellous stadium and crowd behind them, but the lads gave their all.
“They had the ambition initially to score a goal in the first 15-20 minutes, which was the opposite of the domination people expected at the start. I saw a Dybala shot that looked like it had to go in,” Mourinho told Sky Sport Italia.
“After that, we defended very well, tried to go on the counter-attack and never stopped trying to score a goal, even when we were pushed deeper. That’s why I introduced fresh legs with El Shaarawy and Abraham.
“I also want to thank the Roma fans who travelled here for the game and were penned into that cage suffering along with us.”
Over two legs, the Giallorossi managed to keep two clean sheets against a Real Sociedad side who are fourth in LaLiga.
“The lads do the work. I give a little contribution, but it is the team. We have these difficulties, Nemanja Matic had this problem and couldn’t play, so Wijnaldum who didn’t play for six months then had to play 90 minutes twice in three days.
“We return to Rome tired, but proud of what we have achieved. This type of courage and sacrifice, Belotti who had surgery on his hand a few days ago, Pellegrini with 30 stitches in his head. This proves it all.
“We are not the best team in the world, but we’re a solid group of players.”
After winning the Conference League last season, Mourinho has now taken Roma into the Europa League quarter-final, with the draw held tomorrow in Nyon.
“We have already eliminated two quality opponents, RB Salzburg and Real Sociedad. Now we are in the quarter-final with many quality teams, but we’ll see.”
Mourinho aimed a sharp critique at UEFA for the format of the Europa League, which sees the teams who finish third in the Champions League drop into this tournament.
“There are teams there who in my view should not be there. If they are eliminated from a competition, they should go home! So if the Europa League is won by a side that went out of the Champions League, then it will be meaningless to me.
“The Europa League ought to be for the teams who went through the whole thing. I mean, Lazio aren’t going into a third tournament now, are they? That’s how it should be.”
That little sideswipe was aimed at Roma’s city rivals Lazio, who finished third in their Europa League group and dropped down into the Conference League, then were eliminated from that too today, 4-2 on aggregate with AZ Alkmaar.
It is also aimed at Juventus, who are one of the sides who came down from the Champions League and now go into the draw for the Europa League quarter-final.