Only days away from the Derby della Capitale and Roma coach Jose Mourinho is already firing shots at Lazio.
The ex-Chelsea manager took a dig at Maurizio Sarri and the Biancocelesti team by claiming they were busy smoking cigarettes when his Giallorossi outfit were struggling to get a result out of their UEFA Europa Conference League Round of 16 2nd leg tie at Stadio Olimpico.
After winning the first leg by the narrowest of margins, Roma were trailing by a goal against Vitesse Arnhem – a result that would mean the tie headed into extra time. However, Tammy Abraham headed in a sitter at the death to send Mourinho’s men through to the quarter-final stage.
Although Roma won the two-legged encounter, Mourinho still managed to take the time out of his post-match press talk to aim a jab at Sarri and co.
“Obviously, I am not happy that we played today with many players who will also have to be there on Sunday while tonight Lazio are home smoking cigarettes with Sarri, but it’s because Vitesse are really good!”
Now Sarri is at home smoking his cigarette while I go home trying to think how we can recover from this for Sunday,” he said.
José Mourinho: "Obviously I'm not happy because so many players have played tonight, whereas Lazio spent the evening smoking cigarettes with Sarri."
Classic José?pic.twitter.com/89Y88z0HL1
— Iconic Mourinho?? (@Iconic_Mourinho) March 17, 2022
Mourinho will need to take on Lazio only two days after they played Vitesse yesterday evening.
Clima Derby: ???? ?? ??
? https://t.co/6GF0q7TKIF#Mourinho | #Sarri | #RomaLazio pic.twitter.com/V5b7NyC6Qj
— Eurosport IT (@Eurosport_IT) March 18, 2022
Both Roma (48) and Lazio (49) sit just one point apart in 7th and 5th position respectively, with Atalanta sandwiched between them with 48 points.