José Mourinho news: The Portuguese strategist has reacted to AS Roma’s first loss of the Serie A season, admitting it was hard to digest.
Udinese ended Roma’s unbeaten start to the 22/23 Serie A campaign, thrashing them 4-0 in their last game in the Italian top flight.
Destiny Udogie scored five minutes into the match to give Udinese the lead at the Stadio Friuli. Roma went into the halftime break a goal down, but little did they know things were going to get any worse.
The hosts scored their second goal of the match in the 56th minute, with Lazar Samardzic poking the ball into the back of the net. Roberto Pereyra made it 3-0 for Udinese in the 75th minute. Sandi Lovric then completed Udinese’s thrashing of Roma with his fourth goal of the match in the 82nd minute.
Jose Mourinho news: “I’d rather lose a game 4-0 than four games 1-0”
Speaking after the match, Mourinho admitted that it was a tough game against a tough opponent. He also said that he would rather lose one game 4-0 than lose four games 1-0.
“My explanation is that it was a difficult game, a difficult opponent who knows how to play this type of game,” Mourinho told DAZN.
“I will say that I would rather lose one game 4-0 than four games 1-0. It’s hard for us and for the fans to swallow, but that’s life, we have another game on Thursday and we move on”.
Mourinho also took a hint at the match officials. He said they knew he was the ‘perfect referee for a team like Udinese to play at home after knowing who the match referee was’.
Mourinho said: “When you lose 4-0, you can’t talk about the referee, but when we heard he was the match referee, we realized he was the perfect referee for a team like Udinese to play at home.
“The first yellow card went to the artist of the match, that says it all.”
Roma could have reached the top of the table if they had won the game against Udinese. The loss leaves them fifth in the points table with 10 points from five games.
Udinese, also with 10 points, rose to fourth place in the table after their comprehensive victory over Mourinho’s men.
