José Mourinho guided Roma to their second European final after playing a stalemate against Bayer Leverkusen in the second leg of the UEFA Europa League last night. AS Roma qualified ahead of the German side after playing a 1-1 score in Italy.
AS Roma will battle regular UEFA Europa League finalist Sevilla in the final after Sevilla triumphed over Juventus in a 5 goals thriller encounter.
In a post match interview when Mourinho was asked about his achievement in two years with Roma, the Portuguese said, he’s not aware as that doesn’t seems to be a worry rather helping the team achieve greater things.
“Maybe yes, I don’t know. I’m not worried about being part of Roma history, but simply helping the lads achieve big things and improve, as well as helping the Roma fans, who’ve given me so much going back to day one. We’re always giving our all to try to make the supporters happy. Reaching the final is certainly a source of so much joy.”
You didn’t embark on a glorious celebratory run tonight. Is that down to experience, or are you lacking the agility?
“No, it’s not an agility problem. Experience doesn’t come into it because you still feel the pressure during these moments in the same way. You feel the same joy too. It doesn’t change anything. To tell you the truth, it’s very hard for me to come up against my friends (Xabi Alonso) because while you may forget during the game, it’s tough afterwards. I don’t like celebrating in front of my guys and the person doing an extraordinary job out there, Xabi, is one of mine. That’s why I struggle.”
Roma will face Sevilla in the final. What do you make of them?
“Having three Italian sides in European finals is fantastic for Italian football. In our case, Juve and Sevilla are both fantastic teams. I’ve just been focused on getting to the final, rather than the name of the opposition. Sevilla is a really strong side with huge experience in these finals. It’ll certainly be extremely tough, but we’re there and we’ll think about that later on. Next up we face Salernitana and Fiorentina.”
