Mourinho In Tears After Roma Qualify For Conference League Final

Ayomikun Elemikan

AS Roma manager Jose Mourinho burst into tears after the final whistle as he led the Italian outfit to the final of the UEFA Europa Conference League final on Thursday night.

Roma will be participating in the first ever final of the competition as it was only launched this season. The feat was achieved after the Italians beat English side Leicester City 1-0 on the night and 2-1 on aggregate.

The former Chelsea boss shed tears of joy as he has also made history with the club, guiding them to their first European Final in over three decades years.

Tammy Abraham scored an early goal which proved to be enough to send his team to final where they will trade tackles with Dutch club Feyenoord.

“Why did I shed a tear? Because I feel what they all feel,’ he said. ‘It’s a giant club without a trophy room for the social importance of this club.” Mourinho said.

“I know what it means to these people and my emotion was for them. I’ve been lucky enough to be in more prestigious finals but this made me feel very special.

“We have a sense of family. With age you become less selfish and more of a father or even a grandfather to some of them, I’m very happy for all of them. Rome is a red and yellow city, we’ll see the joy over the coming days. I’ve made a small contribution to that.”

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers said after the match: “Our Achilles heel all season has been set pieces and it undid us again tonight. They are about organisation and determination and we lack physicality in those moments.

“They had five players who were big threats from set pieces so there was always going to be a mismatch somewhere and it came to Ricardo Pereira marking Tammy.”