Jose Mourinho joked that he would play ‘Romelu Lukaku as a central defender’ as Roma’s injury crisis has left them with a depleted back line. The Giallorossi left it late to turn around their Coppa Italia match against Cremonese, winning 2-1 with goals from Romelu Lukaku and Paulo Dybala coming in the final 15 minutes of the game. Speaking in the post-match, Mourinho explained why he felt the victory was deserved, pointing to their absence of centre-backs in the squad:
“We did the bare minimum to not suffer so much. We need respect for our difficulties and for what we give. No team in Italy has won without even a central defender on the pitch, it’s not easy. We took a risk, we died of tiredness. We won deservedly, with all due respect to Cremonese, who are not a Serie B team”.
“Lazio in the quarter-finals? I don’t know how we’ll get there. First we have a very important game to play on Sunday and that’s where we are. If we need to we’ll play Lukaku as a central defender.
“Azmoun will leave for the African Cup of Nations, Mancini is cautioned: I don’t know how we’ll get to the Lazio game. But we’ve filled the stadium 43 times in a row, our fans deserve everything. I myself ran a few kilometres today.”
“I’m happy with the way they played but it’s tough, it’s a huge risk. We are used to pressing high because we don’t know how to defend low. But we look at match after match, now we think about Atalanta”.
