José Mourinho has set his sights on Serie A rivals Juventus and Lazio after seeing his side Roma reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League on Thursday.
Roma drew 0-0 with Real Sociedad in the second leg of their last 16 matches, winning 2-0 on aggregate.
In a conversation with Sky Sport Italia after the game, Mourinho couldn’t resist referring indirectly to Juventus, who also went against Freiburg, saying they shouldn’t have been allowed to advance to the Europa League after being knocked out of the group stage. stage of the Champions League.
However, he explicitly mentioned Lazio, who lost 2-1 to AZ Alkmaar on Thursday, losing 4-2 on aggregate and being eliminated from the European Conference League.
“I don’t care about the draw, there are teams that I don’t think should be there, because whoever is eliminated in the competition should go home,” he said. “If the team that was knocked out of the Champions League wins, it means nothing to me, because we are here from the very beginning.
“Lazio? They won’t have a third competition.”
6. Six Italian teams have reached the quarter-finals of UEFA European competition for the third time in history, following the 1998/99 (6) and 1990/91 (7) seasons. Renaissance. pic.twitter.com/SzUXvReUqJ
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) March 16, 2023
Roma had to endure the pressure on La Real, facing 19 shots to three and only having 24% possession.
“After the first match with a 2-0 score (win), the home team risk everything and do their best,” Mourinho said. “They did everything with the support of the stadium, but the guys had everything today, the desire to score in the first 15-20 minutes, when we dominated and pressed, then we controlled the counterattack well.
“We never stopped looking for a goal, even when (Tammy) Abraham and (Stefan) El Shaarawy came on the field, congratulations to the guys, this is their merit. It’s a very strong Europa League, we’ve eliminated two worthy opponents and we’re in the quarter-finals against many top-tier teams.”
Mourinho has had great success in Europe, winning two Champions Leagues, two UEFA Cups/Europa Leagues and last year’s first European Conference League.
Roma will enter Friday’s round of 16 draw along with Juventus, Manchester United, Feyenoord, Sporting CP, Sevilla, Bayer Leverkusen and Union St Gilloise.
“We are not the strongest team in the world, but we are a group that knows how to stick together,” he added.