Mourinho saw a ´great´ Roma in narrow Juventus defeat

Jose Mourinho says he saw a “great” Roma in Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Juventus and is convinced his side are moving in the right direction despite the defeat.

Moise Kean scored the only goal of the game at Juventus Stadium as Rodrigo Bentancur’s header deflected in off the striker in the first half, with Jordan Veretout seeing a penalty kept out by Bianconeri goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Roma out-shot Juventus 15-6 and edged possession with 52.1 per cent, but were unable to breach the hosts’ stubborn rear-guard in Turin.

Giallorossi boss Mourinho believes his beaten side did enough to win the match and is encouraged by the progress Roma are making under his stewardship.

“I can only say I saw a great Roma today. That’s what I told my players in the locker room,” Mourinho told DAZN.

“Obviously, we are talking about a defeat and zero points, but all I can say is that was a great Roma in every respect. Congratulations for the organisation, the hard work, those who played despite some physical difficulties, missing players through international duty.

“I saw courage, confidence, belief. Obviously, the defeat will always be a defeat, but if I look at the project, that means looking at the growth of the team over time.

“I might see it differently to you, but I saw the team that deserved to win ended up losing. That is football.

“All the words we heard from Juventus in the tunnel and the locker room, I hope they say it in public too. They know how much they struggled against us.

“I won here many years ago without playing so well, today we lost when playing very well and showing we are going in the right direction.

“I told the lads that when going into these games where you are not the favourite, you cannot go home with regrets. We played well, we neutralised their counter-attack and had absolute control of players like [Federico] Chiesa and [Juan] Cuadrado.

“We moved the ball internally, but when up against a side that defends that well with those two professors [Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci] it’s not easy. I still feel we did more than enough to win or at least draw. I congratulate my players.”

Kept fighting until the end.
#ASRoma #JuveRoma pic.twitter.com/Ko5ZwlguOg

— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) October 17, 2021

Roma were frustrated with the referee for awarding the penalty that Veretout failed to convert, blowing his whistle seconds before Tammy Abraham turned the ball into the net after Henrikh Mkhitaryan was fouled by Szczesny.

However, Mourinho declined to comment on the matter other than to confirm that Abraham had wanted to take the spot-kick, but had been turned down by first-choice taker Veretout.

“The penalty incident, I don;t want to comment on,” Mourinho continued. “I don’t have all the information at hand, I haven’t seen the replays. I want to isolate myself from that incident and concentrate on everything my team did.

“Abraham is confident, he was fired up, but we have a hierarchy for penalties. Tammy is third behind Veretout and Pellegrini. If Jordan said he was ready to hand it over, that would not have been a problem for me.”