He still has it. Jose Mourinho might be in the sunset of his coaching career, and his best days and results are behind him, but he can still motivate his players, and he can still ‘park the bus’ in order to get a result (even if it’s an ‘ugly’ one), and he is still the star of the press conferences. The Portuguese coach was in full mode after an extra-time win over Feyenoord in the quarter-final of the Europa League. Last year he won the Conference League with Roma, this year, he is in the semi-final, and he will be facing a tough Bayer Leverkusen side. But last night, it was all about his players and an excellent result.Mourinho entered the room, gifted a Conference League keyring to a Dutch journalist with whom he had an argument after the first break, then asked: ‘Cassano isn’t there, is he?’, referring to a criticism he received from the former Roma player recently, and then spoke about his tactics to introduce his best strikers only in the 70th minute of the match.“Now you know why my hair is so white! The other coach is bald, I’ve got white hair. It’s because I’ve had 150-odd European matches, I’ve seen everything. I told the players yesterday; this would be different to RB Salzburg or Bodo/Glimt. It wasn’t one we would kill off straight away. I told them if it is 1-0 at the 90th minute, that’s perfect, the important thing is to keep focused. I am the coach, but the players are the ones who work on the pitch and sacrifice themselves. They deserve the credit. I have enough experience to understand the work I am doing, but I am also balanced. As I said a while ago, I am in a phase of my career where the players are more important, the fans are more important, I am not the most important. I just try to give the fans joy and help these lads to improve. I am proud of that” said Mourinho.UEL: Roma’s extra time barrage etches Mourinho in Feyenoord’s nightmaresOne of the heroes of the match was Paulo Dybala, and Mourinho used the opportunity to pressure him to stay in Rome gently.“Dybala is a nice boy. He has found the lost joy. He has found a coach who loves him. He may think he can play in one of the biggest teams in the world, and he does well, but here he has found a space of great love and joy. I gave him absolute freedom to come on tonight and he could come off even two minutes later if he didn’t feel up to it, but he played 30 minutes of extra time and 25 minutes regular, and he finished on a high” said Mourinho.Definition of a Serial Winner. pic.twitter.com/LsCeu2MmJF— MourinhoXtra™ (@Mourinho_Xtra) April 20, 2023 The Argentinian was indeed very happy with the result and his display in last night’s game. He praised the Roma fans and also gave credit to his coach for predicting the outcome of the game.“I think everyone knows Mourinho, his history, what he’s done in Europe and at every club he worked at I think he won something. His mentality fuels you. He knew the game could end up like this and pushed us to give something more. He changed the tactical system, we started playing better and dominated extra time for a deserved victory. The road from Trigoria to the stadium was incredible. The way the people in this city experience football is wonderful. The stadium packed with 65,000 people is a huge help, they are like an extra man for us on the field. They kept pushing and so did we. I was a little scared when they equalised, but we kept going and made the game ours in extra time” he told Sky Sport Italia.##NAJAVA_MECA_7198400##
