Jose Mourinho has slammed the modus operandi of allowing losing teams from the Champions League to advance into the Europa League campaign.
Mourinho directly aimed at Serie A rivals Juventus and Lazio after his side broke through to the Europa League quarter-finals on Thursday, March 16.
AS Roma defeated Real Sociedad 2-0 in their first leg and played a 0-0 draw in the second leg of their last-16 tie, progressing into the next face on the aggregate of 2-0.
With FC Barcelona out of the tournament already, the dig was aimed at Juventus, who are hopeful of winning the Europa League after advancing past Freiburg.
However, Lazio didn’t make it through, as they were beaten 2-1 on Thursday by AZ Alkmaar, losing 4-2 on aggregate to crash out of the Europa Conference League.
Juventus are one of the clubs that were eliminated from the Champions League group stage and progressed into the next phase of the Europa League tournament.
Meanwhile, Mourinho has slammed the European football competition’s arrangement of allowing an evicted team from the Champions League into the Europa League while speaking to Sky Sport Italia after the 0-0 draw between Roma and Real Sociedad.
The former Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho said teams who have exited the Champions League should not have been allowed to move into the Europa League, they should rather go back home.
He said: “I don’t care about the draw, there are teams there that in my opinion shouldn’t be there, because whoever is eliminated in a competition has to go home.”
The Portuguese manager buttressed his points stating ridiculously that there should also be a third competition where losers from European League would be slotted in just like they gained entrance from the Champions League.
Mourinho said this while referring to Lazio, saying: “Lazio? They won’t have a third competition to play in.”
Following Roma’s breakthrough from the round of 16, Mourinho praised his squad for the relentless and wonderful performance they exhibited.
Mourinho added: “After the 2-0 first leg [win], the home team risks everything and does everything possible.”
“They did everything with the support from the stadium, but the boys today had everything, the ambition to score in the first 15-20 minutes where we dominated and pressed, then we controlled the counter-attack well.”
Mourinho ended Roma’s trophy drought
The 60-year-old Portuguese coach Mourinho has enjoyed a myriad of success in his coaching career in Europe.
His spectacular coaching technique has seen him win two Champions League, two UEFA Cup/Europa Leagues, and last year’s inaugural Europa Conference League with Roma.
On the 5th of May, Mourinho guided Roma to their first European final since 1991 by beating Leicester City 2–1 on aggregate in the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League.
This feat established him as the first manager to reach the final of all three current major European tournaments and the first manager to reach a major European final with four different clubs.
On the 24th of May, Jose Mourinho Ended Roma’s 11 years trophy drought after winning his first title with Roma by defeating Feyenoord in the 2022 UEFA Europa Conference League Final.
What next for Roma?
AS Roma will know their next rival in the Europa League tournament when they enter Friday’s last-eight draw alongside Juventus, Manchester United, Feyenoord, Sporting CP, Sevilla, Bayer Leverkusen, and Union Saint-Gilloise
