Bayer complain about Mourinho's tactics: 'We don’t deserve to get knocked out by a team that not interested in football'

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Bayer complain about Mourinho's tactics: 'We don’t deserve to get knocked out by a team that not interested in football'

Jose Mourinho has taken AS Roma to the Europa League final after his team played out a vapid 0-0 second leg against Bayer Leverkusen.

Leading the tie 1-0 from the first game, all AS Roma had to do was not to concede - and a Jose Mourinho team normally know how to do it.

The Italian side had just one attempt all game, generating an xG (expected goals) of 0.03. Towards the end of the game, Roma's players were quite often on the ground winning fouls and holding their cramped (or maybe 'cramped') legs.

The tactics didn't go down well with Bayer reps. Sporting director Simon Rolfes said, quoted by The Athletic: "They [Roma] broke the rhythm of the game every chance they got.

"After every shot of ours, somebody else threw themselves to the ground and looked as if they needed to be carried off. That’s a tactic, of course. It’s not the ref’s fault there’s someone going down all the time.

"But we’ve been talking a lot about net playing time and saw that even normal games lasted 100 minutes at the World Cup. He [the referee] should have told them: ‘I will play on for another 20 minutes if you don’t stop’. They weren’t inclined to do so though. He let them take the piss. Everyone in the stadium will wish Sevilla good luck for the final. It’s sad that this kind of stuff is getting rewarded."

Midfielder Nadiem Amiri said: "We don’t deserve to get knocked out by a team that are not interested in football. I can’t believe the cheek of them, to play that way today and in Rome."

For what it's worth, Bayer failed to score a single goal across both legs and for all their attempts to play football and 23 shots on Thursday, they barely ever looked threatening.

AS Roma will face Sevilla in the Europa League final in Budapest on 31 May 2023.

Author.eugeneSourceThe Athletic
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