European Championship specialist José Mourinho has a chance to award the continental title to his Italian club Roma when they face Feyenoord Rotterdam on Wednesday in the Albanian capital Tirana in the final of the first edition of the European Football Conference League.
Mourinho, winner of four continental titles, two in the Champions League with Porto (2004) and Inter in Italy (2010), and two in the equivalent tournament, the Europa League with Porto (2003) and Manchester United (2017), said “The big clubs should take this tournament seriously.”
He continued about the third continental championship after the Champions League and the Europa League: “When the competition started, they faced some criticism. People watched the matches without German, English or Spanish clubs… But we watched the matches in the semi-finals, with 70,000 spectators in Rome and full stands in Marseille and Leicester. This tournament is important because clubs like us take it very seriously.”
Roma, who won their last title in 2008 in the Coppa Italia, in the current version lost to the Norwegian Bodo Glimt with a score of 1:6 in the group stage, but regained their winning tone and reached the final.
The fans of the capital team are aware of the importance of winning the first continental title, especially after unsuccessful decisions in the top four in the Italian league and qualifying for the Champions League, so they were satisfied with the sixth decision and the proviso. ticket to the Europa League.
Italian consolation? –
Rome has historically lost two continental finals: in the 1984 European Cup against Liverpool on penalties, and in the European Union Cup in 1991 against fellow countryman Inter, barring its Cities and Exhibitions Cup (later to become the European Union Cup) crowning. in 1961 at the expense of Birmingham, England.
Mourinho, 59, who has not lost a continental final (with the exception of a three-time European Super Final), is looking for an opportunity to make up for his bad trips, most recently with Tottenham Hotspur.
Italy, which took Mourinho’s last continental title with Inter in 2010, is counting on the deserving coach to return him to the podium after a disastrous season in which Serie A clubs failed to reach the quarter-finals of the champions. The league and the blue team once again failed to reach the final of the World Cup in a row, despite having won the title of the last edition of the European Cup.
And while Roma have played 14 games since last summer to reach the final, Feyenoord of the Netherlands have come a long way in which they have played 19 games since the preliminary rounds in July to reach Tirana.
The Dutch held off Marseille in the second leg of the semi-final (0-0 after winning the first leg 3-2) in search of a continuation of their fourth continental title after the 1970 European Cup against Celtic and two in the European Union. Cup (1974 against Tottenham and 2002 against German Borussia Dortmund).
Despite their continental titles, Feyenoord have declined over the past two decades as they failed to miss out on the Champions League group stage while finishing third in the Dutch league, 11 points behind champions Ajax.
An enthusiastic atmosphere is expected between two passionate fans, although the capacity of the National Stadium in Tirana is only 21,000 spectators, and Feyenoord expressed disappointment in receiving 4,000 tickets.
Source: El Iktisad