Mourinho: 'Roma won the Europa League'

Germany Before the second leg of the Europa League semi-finals, coach Jose Mourinho said that Roma had theoretically won this tournament, because they were the only team to remain since the beginning of the season.

The other three clubs in the Europa League semi-finals all dropped out after finishing third in their Champions League groups. Leverkusen finished behind Porto and Club Brugge in Group B, Sevilla finished third behind Dortmund and Man City in Group G, and Juventus finished behind PSG and Benfica in Group H.

"If I didn't have the ambition to win, I would say that Roma would have won the Europa League. Because if the Europa League was only for teams that had played since the beginning of the tournament, Roma would have clearly won," Mourinho said on May 17 at a press conference before the second leg of the semi-final against Leverkusen.

Mourinho at Roma's training ground on May 15. Photo: asroma.it — Mourinho at Roma's training ground on May 15. Photo: *asroma.it*

But the "Special One" stressed that this was just theory, and Roma's real goal was to reach the final and win the Europa League. According to Mourinho, the Europa League title would be more valuable to a team built to compete in this tournament, compared to teams invested in the Champions League like Leverkusen.

Mourinho was proud of Roma's difficult run in the Europa League this season, starting with a group stage clash with Real Betis. The Romans then overcame Real Sociedad - who were all but guaranteed a top-four finish in La Liga and a place in next season's Champions League - in the round of 16 before defeating newly crowned Dutch champions Feyenoord in the quarter-finals.

In the first leg of the semi-finals, Roma had the advantage after beating Leverkusen 1-0 thanks to 20-year-old Edoardo Bove. Bookmakers rated Roma as the strongest candidate with a 33% chance of winning the title, followed by Juventus (28%), Sevilla (27%) and Leverkusen (24%). But Mourinho is not interested in these odds. He explained: "What I have said for 20 years is that if you reach the semi-finals, you have a 25% chance of winning the title and a 50% chance of reaching the final."

The Portuguese coach refused to talk about the rumors of negotiations with PSG and set the goal of winning the European championship with Roma for the second time in a row, after the Europa Conference League in the 2021-2022 season. Mourinho revealed that Paulo Dybala, Stephan El Shaarawy and Chris Smalling are not in the best physical condition to play the full 90 minutes and have to calculate properly, while Rick Karsdorp, Diego Llorente and Ebrima Darboe are definitely absent.

Before the first leg of the semi-final, Mourinho waited in the Leverkusen training area, hugging, kissing on the cheek and exchanging words with Xabi Alonso. The former Spain midfielder scored three goals in 151 games under Mourinho at Real Madrid. Alonso was appointed Leverkusen coach in October 2022, winning 17 of his 32 games.

Ahead of the rematch in Germany, Alonso admitted he was happy and learned a lot from Mourinho, but will put his feelings aside once the whistle blows. The 41-year-old former midfielder praised Roma as a strong opponent, wanting Leverkusen to show a balance between intensity, passion and defensive ability to create a historic night at the BayArena.

Hong Duy

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