High-flying Udinese dismantled Jose Mourinho’s Roma 4-0 at the Dacia Arena to stretch their unbeaten run in Serie A to four matches. In the meantime, the Giallorossi suffered their first league defeat of the season at the worst possible moment.
Ahead of their impending Europa League return, Roma headed to the Stadio Friuli looking to maintain a stellar start to the season. After three wins and a draw from their opening four Serie A fixtures, Mourinho’s men had a golden opportunity to move to the top of the table with a win at Udinese.
However, in a bizarre twist of fate, Andrea Sottil’s side put Roma to the sword, producing arguably their best performance in the past two seasons. Destiny Udogie gave Udinese a 1-0 halftime lead only five minutes after the first whistle to set the pulse for an outstanding evening for the Friulani.
Goals were coming by almost at will in the second half. Lazar Samardzic found the net only 11 minutes after the restart to put clear daylight between the sides. Roberto Pereyra and Sandi Lovric scored inside the final 15 minutes of play to seal Udinese’s sensational victory, leaving Mourinho fuming.
As ever, the former Inter head coach came up with a funny explanation in the aftermath. In a comic attempt to defend his side’s disastrous defeat, Mourinho said he’d rather lose one game 4-0 than four matches 1-0. And if you think twice, the Roma boss has a point here, though it cannot justify the Giallorossi’s collapse.
However, Mourinho couldn’t help himself not to mention the match officials.
“Our chances were a header off the woodwork and a potential penalty that might’ve been offside anyway, but when you lose 4-0, you cannot talk about the referee. That is my rule,” he said, as relayed by Pagine Romaniste.
“I will say that I prefer to lose one match 4-0 than four matches 1-0, because ultimately we only dropped three points rather than 12. It’s tough for us and the fans to swallow, but this is life, we have another game on Thursday and we go forward.“