Roma became the first team to prevent Napoli winning a Serie A game this season in Sunday’s goalless draw.
In a gruelling game, chances were limited for both teams, and it was Jose Mourinho to steal the headlines once again after being sent off from the touchline.
Here’s how he assessed the overall game.
On whether a draw was a good result
“A 0-0 draw seems like a fair result to me, although it could have been 1-0 to us and we would have felt that was fair and if it had finished 1-0 to them they would probably have thought the same. It was a really tough game for both sides.”
On what improved defensively
“The two full-backs are doing better. The give-and-take between [Jordan] Veretout and [Bryan] Cristante in the centre of midfield was done really well too. One of them always felt comfortable bringing the ball out because they knew the other was covering behind them. Obviously in this game, considering how Napoli like to play, it was important that [Nicolo] Zaniolo and [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan closed down the spaces and they did that well.”
On his red card
“I don’t know, because I wasn’t happy with a decision. Nothing special, I didn’t tell the referee to take a walk or anything. It was a game where both myself and [Luciano] Spalletti received red cards, but I don’t think the referee had a bad game. I thought he refereed the game well. He was balanced.”
On a response to Thursday’s loss to Bodo/Glimt
“When you put in such a terrible performance like we did, the game that follows it becomes very, very difficult from a mental perspective. It carries a completely different weight to it. And playing Napoli is not easy anyway. But we played well and we tried to win the game.”
On the players he sent to the stands
“Those are changing room matters, those are messages to the changing room. They were poor performances that, even with a thin bench, one made up of kids, it was an important message I wanted to send. There are games and then there are games. It will have happened to you guys before that you’ve gone home after a game having not played well, but that match will always be a part of my history and it’s hard for me to forgive that. Of course, I’m expecting to have them back. They don’t have a black mark against their names and everything is behind them now.”
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