Picture Credit: Twitter
Jose Mourinho was in tears as AS Roma registered a 1-0 victory over Feyenoord in the final of the Europa Conference League to win the club’s first European honour. I Giallorossi’s Nicolo Zaniolo scored the only goal as the Italian giants won a hard-fought game over the Rotterdamian club in Tirana on Wednesday night.
The Italian forward finished off on a lofted pass over the top from Gianluca Mancini to lob the ball past Justin Bijlow in the 32nd minute. After the match, Jose Mourinho got very emotional as he won his first European title after six years. The Portuguese manager also became the first manager to win all three UEFA titles in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League in history.
While speaking to Sky Italia, Mourinho talked about how he is ready for competing in the Europa League. He said, “There are so many things going through my head. So many things at the same time. I’ve been at Roma for 11 months, I realised the moment I arrived what it meant, they were waiting for this. As I told the lads in the locker room in Turin, we did what we needed to do, qualify for the Europa League.”
"Sit on the beach to think about all this for a while!”
He then addressed that he will now take a beach vacation and relieve this moment. He said, “This was not work tonight, this was history. We had to write history. We wrote it. This remains in the history of Roma, but also mine. I was told only I, Sir Alex [Ferguson] and Giovanni Trapattoni won trophies in three different decades. It makes me feel a little old, but it’s nice for my career! Now I will go on vacation and sit on the beach to think about all this for a while!”
"Doing it with Porto, Inter and Roma is very, very, very special"
Mourinho also thanked the Roma fans and addressed this win as something extremely special. He said, “The great thing about my career is that, aside from the Europa League with Manchester United, doing it with Porto, Inter and Roma is very, very, very special. It’s one thing to win when everyone expects it when you made the investments to win, but it’s quite another to win when something remains immortal, that feels truly special. I think of myself, of course, but above all the Roma fans who can celebrate tonight, enjoy themselves and remember this night forever.”