Following the Giallorossi’s lackluster 1-1 draw against Torino, Roma boss Jose Mourinho provided his insight in a post-match interview.
The Portuguese tactician’s side struggled immensely within their build-up as they lacked creativity and flair, making them incapable of posing any major threat on I Granata’s back-line.
After a first half where they the capital club failed to tally a single shot on target, Juric’s side gave Roma a rude-awakening as Karol Linetty headed home a superb cross from the promising wing-back Wilfred Singo.
Consequently, the Special One summoned the Argentine Paulo Dybala to the playing board in exchange for wing-back Nicola Zalewski in order to shift the momentum within Roma’s favour.
As expected, the 29 year-old did not disappoint as he fired across all cylinders and dazzled through the pitch with his impeccable fluidity and technical ability.
Within the dying minutes of the game, the world-class striker fired a mesmerizing curler that hit off the bar and landed on Nemanja Matic’s foot. The Serbian latched on from far out and launched a venomous screamer to seal a last-gasp equalizer.
With the Giallorossi only sealing a single point, Roma have dropped outside of the top-four in seventh with a total of 27 points, failing to win a single fixture in their last three outings within the league.
While speaking to Dazn, as relayed by LaRoma24, Mourinho gave his thoughts on his men’s display following the underwhelming result ahead of the winter break for the World Cup:
What happened during the expulsion?
“The expulsion is right, my words deserve red. I talked to the referee later and apologized, but I don’t want to talk about his way of refereeing. I had the humility to apologize for my words, but I leave you to comment on his performance during the match. “
What didn’t you like about the referee?
“I do not wanna talk about it. The game is over, the one that can be won is not the finished one, but the next one. I talked to the referee and I really don’t like to talk about this situation publicly.”
Speaking of the match …
“Which of the two? One until the 70th minute, where the Roma fans want to go home, are sorry and boo, while in the last minutes we have created more than in the last 4/5 games. The reason why? It’s easy, when someone like Dybala doesn’t play it’s very different for us. I don’t want to be Harry Potter, but how many points would we have scored with Dybala on the pitch in the last 6? In two there was not even Pellegrini. The difficulties in our game are visible, but the light is there. There are some players who have a very low level, we need to rest. From an individual point of view, some have to do a self-reflection, a self-criticism that I will also do with myself. However, only a united team like us does what we did today. When you hit two posts and miss a penalty in the 93rd minute, the game usually dies there and instead it went to the end. I call these 20 minutes the 20 minutes of hope. The hope of having Dybala, Pellegrini and all together, including Tahirovic. I’ve been saying it was ready for weeks and today it went well. Congratulations on your debut. ”
