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La Louve won their first European title on Wednesday, the new European League Conference, by defeating Feyenoord Rotterdam (1-0) in the final.
Jose Mourinho confirmed his gifts as a lucky charm to Italian football by presenting Roma to their first European title, the new European League Conference, by defeating Feyenoord Rotterdam (1-0) in a difficult final on Wednesday, May 25, in Tirana.
Roma relied on a superb sequence from Nicolo Zaniolo to open a locked match (32) and then on the gloves and lists of their goalkeeper Rui Patricio to fend off the Dutch afterwards. This short win deserves Wolf’s first international title, after two final losses (1984 in C1, 1991 in C3), if we exclude the success in 1961 in the Fairgrounds Cup, the unofficial predecessor of the European League.
Mourinho commented: “I told the players that they did their job by qualifying for the Europa League (with sixth place in the league). Today it was not a success, it was history in writing.” “This title is in the history of Rome, but it is also mine,” added the European finalist, who won his fifth continental title, after two Champions Leagues (2004 with FC Porto, 2010 with Inter Milan) and the Champions League. Dorian Europa League (2003 with FC Porto, 2017 with Manchester United).
If we count his success in the Coupe des Coupes (defunct C2) as an assistant to FC Barcelona, he combines the four European Cups.
Final in the form of a game of chess
His victory on the bench at C1 was also the last for an Italian team on the European stage. So it was necessary to wait twelve years and the Portuguese return to Italy to see a Serie A team lift a trophy again in Europe. Enough to keep Mourinho’s mania alive at the Stadio Olimpico, where tens of thousands of Romans gathered on Wednesday to watch this historic victory on the big screen, according to Sky Sports.
The number of spectators was about half the number at Tirana Stadium (21,000 seats), too small to accommodate the 100,000 spectators from both sides who descended on Albania. With key tensions, arrests and the expulsion of Tiffusi. In the stadium, there was no overreporting even if an inflatable plane of two bananas made some observers react. In 2015, during a previous match between the two clubs, the throwing of a giant plastic banana at the Italian national team’s ranks was interpreted on social media as an act of racist connotations.
The final game looked like a game of chess at first, with two tight blocks and full engagement. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, set up by Mourinho despite his lack of matches (he has been absent due to injury since the end of April), has not kept up with the pace, victim of a setback in the right thigh after a quarter of an hour.
Spinazzola to the rescue
The opener came from Gianluca Mancini, where he found Niccol Zaniolo in the area, who opened the goal with a push of a button before scoring with the tip of his left foot (32). The rest was largely due to Rui Patricio’s gloves and poles.
Initially not too calm in a pivotal shot from Orkun Kökçü (41st position), the Portuguese goalkeeper for Roma unleashed two crucial strikes on strikes from Guus Til (47th position) and especially Tyrell Malacia (50th position), who in these actions also saved their amounts!
The tone was set for the second half from a different record, with the Dutch attacking and bringing Roma down, with Leonardo Spinazzola returning in the second half to the rescue. Jordan Veritot (73), coming in for striker Zaniolo, then Lorenzo Pellegrini (85) could have given Mourinho some air, but they also fell for the attentive Dutch goalkeeper Justin Bigelow.
To raise his arms to the sky, the Portuguese had to wait another long minutes of extra time. But he holds this trophy well which has allowed him to finish with a happy cry of joy this season, finishing far from the top four in Serie A, and even behind Lazio Roma, in sixth place. But a small cup changes everything.
with AFP
