Mourinho salutes Roma despite Napoli loss, offers advice to in-demand Osimhen
José Mourinho saw his Roma side beaten 2-1 by Serie A leaders Napoli on Sunday evening, but the Portuguese was highly positive about the Giallorossi’s performance.
Mourinho also had words of advice for Napoli goalscorer and highly- coveted forward Victor Osimhen, whom he criticised for diving during an enthralling match at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Roma fell behind to Osimhen’s brilliant 17th-minute opener, but held their own in a competitive game before equalising through Stephan El Shaarawy. With a draw moving closer, Napoli snatched a vital winner just five minutes from time thanks to late introduction Giovanni Simeone, who finished with his left foot from just inside the area.
After the match, Mourinho insisted his players take a team photo in the dressing room to demonstrate his satisfaction with their efforts. Speaking to reporters, the Roma coach suggested the visitors could have come away with a victory against Luciano Spalletti’s high-flying Gli Azzurri.
“We played really good football from the first minute,” said the ex-Porto boss. “There was a period 10-15 minutes after Osimhen’s goal when we felt the injustice of going 1-0 down. Aside from that, the team was always in control, pressed high, recovered the ball, defended well,” Mourinho told DAZN.
“If there are games where you can lose and emerge feeling more confident than before, it might seem a contradiction, but this was one of those games. We are certainly the side that made Napoli suffer the most and made the stadium feel empty in an extraordinary atmosphere, as we scared them.
“I leave here more confident. Seeing our three substitutes at the end were three kids who last season were playing on the plastic pitch, it makes me so proud and happy. Sometimes football is unjust, sometimes the team that deserves it the most loses.
“At times we won without deserving, but today I think we deserved to win the game. I am sad about the result, you cannot smile too much when you lose, but with full hearts we move on.”
Mourinho had the Roma players pose for a team photo despite a narrow 2-1 defeat to Napoli tonight pic.twitter.com/oUPb9JFKXn
— Sean Gillen (@SeanGillen9) January 29, 2023
Mourinho also addressed Osimhen, after the two were seen sharing some words on the sidelines. The Nigerian striker has been in exceptional form so far this season, leading to reports of interest from Manchester United and other clubs in England.
“I told him that he scored a wonderful goal and needs to stop diving so much,” Mourinho said. “His goal was fantastic, he did the same thing when we met earlier this season, so he’s a fantastic player. But he mustn’t dive. He is of the same level as Drogba, but Didier didn’t dive.
“If Victor changes, then OK. I’d buy him if I was at a club with a lot of money. However, if he does go to England one day, he needs to change, because in Italy they put up with this sort of behaviour, whereas in the Premier League, they’d come down hard on him.”
Roma are in 6th place after the defeat, but are only two points adrift of 2nd-place Inter in what looks set to be a fascinating battle for the Champions League spots.
By Sean Gillen