José Mourinho enjoyed AS Roma and Feyenoord in the quarterfinals of the Europa League. The Italians eliminated Feyenoord after extra time and that cost Mourinho quite a few years of his life.
Mourinho compliments Feyenoord: “Now you know why he is bald and I am gray”
“It was very, very difficult tonight,” Mourinho told Sky Italia’s camera. “With concentration, courage and intelligence, to attack when it was time to attack, defend when it was necessary against a very good Feyenoord, I believe we were superior.”
No lack of excitement Thursday evening. Until minute 89, Feyenoord thought it would win, but substitute Paulo Dybala equalized just before time in two matches. The coach added, “Now you know why my hair is so gray. The other coach is bald and I have gray hair. Having played about 150 European matches, I have seen everything. I told the players yesterday that this would be different from RB Salzburg or Bodø/Glimt.”
After twenty minutes, Roma already had to deal with a major downer due to a muscle injury from Georginio Wijnaldum. “The loss of Wijnaldum really got me into big trouble. When I wanted to bring in Dybala, I had to do the other two substitutions at the same time, otherwise we wouldn’t have a substitution on hand in case Dybala couldn’t continue. We managed to wait until extra time, so we got an extra substitution,” he said.
With the victory over Feyenoord, AS Roma qualified for the semi-finals of the Europa League. Bayer Leverkusen is the opponent in this.
Slot agrees with screaming Mourinho: “Then you have to be very good”
José Mourinho wanted to know on Thursday evening that he had won against Feyenoord with AS Roma (4-1). After the return in the quarterfinals of the Europa League, the Portuguese coach shouted something to Feyenoord colleague Arne Slot.
It was the topic of conversation in front of ESPN’s camera afterwards. What exactly did Mourinho want to say to Slot when he was grumbling in the catacombs of the Stadio Olimpico? “I just told him to look at Roma instead of Napoli and Manchester City, because he didn’t study Roma well enough,” Mourinho said.
Slot was later asked for comment at the time: “You know how this kind of thing goes in Italian media. And you also know how good Mourinho is at putting players on edge. He thought maybe I should watch Roma more often instead of just Manchester City and Napoli. And he may be right about that, because his team did fight and battle today. Because if you can beat this Feyenoord, you must be very good.”
