Jose Mourinho’s Roma held Leicester City to a 1-1 draw at the King Power Stadium after a hard-fought 90 minutes, which the Foxes dominated but failed to overcome a rather stern Giallorossi defence. Despite not emerging victors, the Special One was impressed with his team’s display as he praised the evening’s adversaries for their relentless attacking show.
“”They had more of the ball, they had more attacking waves, but we knew that. Everybody knew that. We were organized, we defended very well. I think in the end, maybe it’s a fair result,” the Portuguese manager told BT Sport (via The Express).
The former Chelsea and Tottenham coach believes the return leg being at the Stadio Olimpico will be pivotal for his team to progress through, but he isn’t thinking about Tirana just yet.
He said: “The return leg should be treated as a final to be played in Rome. We have to look at it that way. We cannot think about Tirana. I think every Roma supporter would have been happy at the thought of a draw in the first leg. At the Olimpico it will be difficult, but we will have 70,000 fans backing us.”
Finally, he praised the intensity of the game, saying that it wasn’t fit to be a match of the third-tier of European competitions.
“Honestly, nobody believes that this is the Conference League. Credit to the competition, to have a game of this level, teams of this level, a referee of this level. I think the game was too good to be the Conference League,” he ended.
Roma will face Leicester in the 2nd leg next Thursday as both teams will count their chances of a first-ever UEFA title, facing either Feyenoord or Marseille at the Arena Kombetare in Tirana, Albania on May 25.