Jose Mourinho revived old habits as Roma delivered another disappointing performance in a high-stakes game. Defensively-minded Giallorossi held eternal rivals Lazio to a scoreless draw on Sunday evening, wasting a massive opportunity to reduce the distance on the Serie A top four.
Despite Mourinho’s futile attempt to make a case for Roma ‘pursuing a win’ in the famous Derby della Capitale, only those who didn’t watch the game would believe him. Except for a decent start to the match, his men played like their lives depended on a point.
It’s enough to say Roma failed to produce a shot on target since Ivan Provedel saved Rick Karsdorp’s 12th-minute attempt. It was the third consecutive Serie A meeting between Mourinho’s side and Lazio in which Giallorossi drew a blank.
But for some reason, Mourinho insists Roma wanted to win, albeit maintaining a point was better than losing.
“A flavor of a point. When you play, you do it to win. The point is better than the defeat,” the Roma boss said, as quoted by TMW. “The lads played a good game, with personality with a lot of ball. We failed to score the goal. We had a few chances, and we could have done better.“
Despite blowing hot and cold across their last three Serie A matches, Roma will spend the international break only three points adrift of fourth-placed Napoli. Mourinho’s team fired a blank twice in that sequence, meaning the upcoming pause comes at an opportune moment.
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