Roma manager Jose Mourinho has spoken about the clubโs issues upfront, stating that they donโt have Erling Haaland and have to make do with what they have.
The Giallorossi lost 1-0 to Feyenoord in the quarter-final first leg of the Europa League and they had missed a first-half penalty. but the performances of Tammy Abraham and Andrea Belotti were not great on the night, having endured rather inconsistent campaigns themselves. Paulo Dybala was also taken off in the first half due to injury.
After the game, Roma boss Mourinho spoke to Skyย (via TMW) about the clubโs issues upfront and the game in general. On their problems with goalscoring, the Portuguese stated:
โWe donโt have Haaland, we are who we are, we always do our best. The guys played a game of effort, dignity, sacrifice. They had opportunities for a different result, but this is the reality. We have a tough match on Sunday, then Thursday
โWe donโt have many players for these rotations. Weโll probably lose Dybala and Abraham for these two games, but weโre never wrong at the Olimpico.โ
He further spoke about the centre-forward issues and stated: โThe team doesnโt score the goals it should, in accordance with what it does on the pitch. Also last Sunday in Turin, we had the opportunity to make it 2-0 and close the match, we didnโt. We are not a team that scores many goals. In Salzburg, we had 3-4 goals and we donโt score them. We have these difficulties, there are few goals for offensive players.โ
Mourinho also spoke about whether he is optimistic about the second leg and their progression to the semi-finals. He stated that he is optimistic but he is cautious about the next Serie A game.ย
โYes, but worried about Sunday. You lose important players, everyone is in our team, but there are fewer options. We always do our best, obviously itโs a result that we donโt feel deserved, but deserved isnโt part of my vocabulary. Unfortunately weโre playing against Udinese on Sunday and we have to focus there.โ
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Kaustubh Pandey | GIFN
