Roma coach Jose Mourinho is proud of his players to have reached the Europa Conference League final.
Roma will face Feyenoord in the final next Wednesday in Tirana.
“They overcame difficult opponents, for example the semi-final against Olympique Marseille, who have a great European history at a place like the Velodrome, so we need to recognise their merits in getting to the Final,” Mourinho told UEFA’s Italian-language website.
“All Finals are 50-50 affairs, but we’ll do our best to make it 51-49 in our favour. It has to happen during the game, not before. It is the day of the players, all we can do is give a small help.”
Mourinho has so far not suffered a defeat in a major final.
“I have been fortunate, my players gave their best in the Finals we reached. In the moment of truth, they were ready.”
He continued: “I am a coach with a certain history and Roma are a big club. I did feel a little bit of responsibility to make this a big competition. We slowly realised our ambition to go as far as possible. With pride, we saw the semi-finals played in packed stadiums with a total 170,000 fans present.
“The Conference League is our Champions League. This is the level we are at, the competition we are playing for. The club has not reached a game like this for a very long time.”
Roma haven’t won a trophy since the 2007-08 season.
“We must forget that. In my view, you need to treat the Final as a one-off match that brings pressure, tension and a sense of responsibility. We must only focus on the Final and the opponent we are up against, forget the history of Roma right now. Obviously, it’d be marvellous to win for the city, the club and all of us.
“If I do win four European trophies with four different clubs, I will never forget the first, the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1996-97 as assistant to Bobby Robson at Barcelona. Every time I sat next to him on the bench, I felt very proud.”
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