Mourinho wishes someone could replace Dybala

On the field of Olimpico, Roma succeeded with Mourinho's familiar thorny and pragmatic play. The home side had only 40% possession, finished nine times with three shots on target, compared to Sociedad's 9 and 1, but was far more effective with two goals.

In the 13th minute, Paulo Dybala poked a slot for Tammy Abraham to escape to the right and then crossed to the far post for Stephan El Shaarawy to throw a cushion into the empty net. El Shaarawy scored his first Europa League goal this season, and his fourth in 27 games in all competitions.

When the official time was still three minutes, Dybala continued to make his mark with a corner kick on the right for Marash Kumbulla to run a header close to the net to hit the away team.

The host would have won more if he had taken the opportunity, when captain Lorenzo Pellegrini failed to cushion in the 31st minute and the substitute striker Andrea Belotti hit the bar in the 67th minute. However, a 2-0 victory was enough to Roma holds the advantage before the second leg in Spain on March 16.

After the match, Mourinho lamented that there was no worthy striker to replace Paulo Dybala - who showed signs of weakness, but had to kick until the 88th minute to leave the field. Roma coach also mentioned that Bayern left Serge Gnabry, Sadio Mane and Leroy Sane as substitutes in the 2-0 win over PSG in the second leg of the 1/8 Champions League round on March 8. "Just one of them is enough for me. If so, I can replace Dybala and score another goal," Mourinho half-joking.

However, the "Special One" also admitted that he could not ask for more from the students, when Roma controlled the game despite holding the ball less. Mourinho praised the team's organization, effort, empathy, showing a strong mentality and scoring Kumbulla's goals as very important.

"This result is only good if Roma don't concede three goals in the second leg. I would never say we got a good result after the first leg," he added about the score.

Before the rematch in Spain, Roma received Sassuolo in round 26 of Serie A, and Sociedad was a guest of Mallorca in round 25 of La Liga on March 12.