Mourinho: 'Roma has won the Europa League'
The remaining three clubs in the Europa League semi-finals all dropped after finishing third in the Champions League group stage. Leverkusen is behind Porto and Club Brugge in Group B, Sevilla is third behind Dortmund and Man City in Group G, and Juventus is behind PSG and Benfica in Group H.
"If I had no ambition to win, then I would say that Roma would have won the Europa League. Because if the Europa League was only for teams that competed from the beginning of the tournament, it is clear that Roma would have won it," Mourinho said on 17. /5 at the press conference before the semi-final second leg against Leverkusen.
But the "Special One" emphasizes that this is only a theory, and Roma's actual goal is to reach the final and win the Europa League. According to Mourinho, the Europa League title will be of greater value to the team built to compete in this tournament, compared to teams invested in the Champions League like Leverkusen.
Mourinho is proud as Roma have gone through a difficult journey in the Europa League this season, starting with competing with Real Betis in the group stage. The Rome club then overcame Sociedad - the club certainly finished in the top 4 of La Liga to attend next season's Champions League - in the round of 16 and then defeated the new Dutch league champion Feyenoord in the quarterfinals.
In the semi-final first leg, Roma had the advantage when they beat Leverkusen 1-0 thanks to the 20-year-old Edoardo Bove. The bookie considers Roma to be the heaviest candidate with a 33% chance of being crowned, followed by Juventus (28%), Sevilla (27%) and Leverkusen (24%). But Mourinho doesn't care about these ratios. "What I've been saying for 20 years is that if you're in the semi-finals, you have a 25 per cent chance of winning and a 50 per cent chance of making it to the final,” he explained.
The Portuguese coach refused to talk about rumors of negotiations with PSG and set a goal with Roma to win the European championship for the second time in a row, after the Europa Conference League season 2021-2022. Mourinho revealed that Paulo Dybala, Stephan El Shaarawy and Chris Smalling were not in the best shape to play the full 90 minutes and had to calculate properly, while Rick Karsdorp, Diego Llorente, Ebrima Darboe were definitely absent.
Before the semi-final first leg, Mourinho waited in the training area of Leverkusen, hug, kiss on the cheek and exchange with Xabi Alonso. The former Spain midfielder scored three goals in 151 games under Mourinho at Real Madrid. Alonso has been appointed Leverkusen coach since October 2022, winning 17 out of 32 matches.
Before the rematch in Germany, Alonso admitted that he was happy and learned a lot from Mourinho, but would put aside the affection once the opening whistle sounded. The 41-year-old former midfielder hailed Roma as a strong opponent, wanting Leverkusen to show the balance between intensity, passion and defensive ability to create a historic night at BayArena.
