Jose Mourinho targeted Juventus and Lazio following Roma’s advancement to the Europa League last eight on Thursday.
In the second leg of their last-16 match, Roma drew 0-0 with Real Sociedad and won 2-0 overall.
Roma advance to Europa League quarter final
After the game, Mourinho spoke to Sky Sport Italia and indirectly criticized Juventus, who also advanced to the Europa League quarter-finals after being eliminated from the Champions League group stage, stating that they should not have been permitted to continue in the tournament.
While he didn’t mention Juventus directly, Mourinho did mention Lazio, who lost 2-1 to AZ Alkmaar on Thursday, resulting in their elimination from the Europa Conference League with a 4-2 aggregate loss.
“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. If a team that has been eliminated from the Champions League wins, it doesn’t mean anything to me because we’ve been here from the beginning.
“Lazio? They won’t have a third competition to play in.”
Roma had to endure a lot of pressure from La Real, who had 19 shots compared to Roma’s three, and only had 24% possession.
“After the 2-0 first leg [win], the home team risks everything and does everything possible,” Mourinho added. “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.
“We never stopped looking for the goal, even when [Tammy] Abraham and [Stephan] El Shaarawy came on, congratulations to the boys, it’s thanks to them. It’s a very strong Europa League, we have eliminated two quality opponents and we are in the quarter-finals with many top-level teams.”
