Roma boss Jose Mourinho holds bizarre post-match press conference after comeback win over Sassuolo… as he slams their lack of ‘fair play’ and only responds in Portuguese – despite speaking perfect Italian!

Jose Mourinho took another swipe at the Italian media during his post-match commitments after Roma’s comeback to win 2-1 at Sassuolo on Sunday.

Despite being a goal down for most of the game, Mourinho’s men turned it around in the final 15 minutes to keep up their pressure near the top of the Serie A table. 

During his post-match commitments, he struck out at the media, bizarrely choosing to use an interpreter for his comments to DAZN, electing to use Portuguese despite speaking perfect Italian, and also hit out at Sassuolo after a late incident saw one of his backroom team dismissed from the touchline. 

Pre-match, Mourinho had claimed he was ‘worried’ about referee Matteo Marcenaro and the use of VAR – but the officiating actually fell in favour of the visitors.

Matheus Henrique put the hosts in front after 25 minutes, but were undone after going down to ten men when Daniel Boloca was dismissed just after the hour mark after consulting with the video officials.

Rasmus Kristensen’s deflected winner eight minutes from time completed Roma’s turnaround

Paulo Dybala scored the equaliser from the penalty spot with quarter of an hour remaining, with Dybala assisting Rasmus Kristensen for the deflected winner eight minutes from time. 

After the game, as reported by Football Italia, Mourinho said: ‘I want to thank the club and director Tiago Pinto, who over the last 24 hours gave me the support and therefore the emotional stability that allows me to do my work.

‘They showed faith in me. This was a very important, hard-fought and deserved victory, because even when we were a goal down, Roma were still the best team on the pitch.

‘I am very happy with the players and all our fans. I want to dedicate this to my fantastic assistant manager, Salvatore Foti, who was not here today but worked very hard to help us achieve the victory.’

Despite speaking excellent Italian, and working with Inter Milan before his time at Roma, he explained his reasoning for choosing to speak in his native tongue.

Mourinho said: ‘The reason I am speaking Portuguese is that my Italian is not sufficiently polished to express certain concepts. When I talked about emotional stability, I was referring to a quality that in life and in football is necessary to perform at the highest level.’

Sassuolo’s ‘fair play’ was questioned after a late incident saw a Roma staff member sent off

A member of Roma staff was dismissed from the touchline in stoppage time for refusing to return the ball quickly to Sassuolo, as they desperately sought an equaliser. 

Mourinho said: ‘As for the situation that caused some irritation in the Sassuolo staff and fans when we did not give the ball back quickly, I went over to my colleague and simply said that to receive fair play, it is necessary to first give it and there is a player in the Sassuolo squad who is lacking in that area.’ 

Earlier in the week, Mourinho slammed his squad’s ‘sluggish attitude’ duing their Europa League draw against Swiss side Servette.  

After the weekend’s action, Roma sit in fourth place in Serie A, with their next game in a week’s time at home to Fiorentina.