Mourinho: ‘It was a balanced game’

Roma coach Jose Mourinho thought his team gave a ‘sufficient performance’ in what he considered to be a ‘balanced game’. The Giallorossi held their own for much of the game before being sunk by a late Victor Osimhen goal.

Speaking to DAZN after the game, Mourinho offered his assessment of the match:

It was a sufficient performance, although I wanted to win.

Overall it was a balanced game, we struggled after two yellow cards. A lot of fatigue, and few solutions on the bench to keep the same rhythm going. Karsdorp, who started the match, was a total surprise, and like him, Spinazzola also didn’t have 90 minutes on his legs.

Pellegrini asked me for a substitution, Matic was injured… there is a feeling of injustice, but I salute my players. A goal would have been enough.

I certainly expected more from my forwards. We have had 1-on-1 chances, the few situations we had we were not able to exploit them. They are a quality team, the accumulation of yellow cards was a problem.

In the second half the performance went down a notch. Ibanez was forced to limit his tackles because of that kid, Lozano, who dives all the time.

I don’t want to talk about the refereeing issue, he is a balanced man but there are things that I didn’t like today. I talked to him after the game about it.

Considering who we had available on the bench today we played a good game. Despite the loss, I’m happy with how my boys performed tonight. I don’t think Napoli deserved to win, but congratulations anyway.”