Mourinho: We leave with our fate still in our hands

Andrea Belotti got the second half equaliser for Jose Mourinho's side, after Sergio Canales had earlier opened the scoring with a speculative - and deflected - effort.

The result means the Giallorossi know they will progress to the knockout stages of the Europa League as long as they win both of their remaining group stage matches.

Here is what Mourinho had to say about the contest...

This result keeps you in control of your destiny.

“Yes, but there was pressure on this one tonight. It wasn’t a group stage match really, but a knockout one – if we had lost then we would have been out.

“So to then go in 1-0 down at half-time, that’s real pressure on you. The sort of pressure you don’t usually feel in a group stage, only in the knockout stage. And with all the issues that we have – injuries, suspensions, tiredness, games after games – to play against a side that made six or seven changes from their last match, to have a fresh side out, and then to show the heart that we did, to show a better quality of play like we did in the second half … I think without doubt that shows we deserved to draw, which is what we needed.

“If it was a game where we needed to win and nothing else would do, then perhaps in the final 10 or 15 minutes we would have had the quality to go on a take a few more risks. But today we had to use our heads and in those final minutes we managed the game well. We are still in the competition. We have two games left, two games we need to win – if we don’t win those then we are out. But that’s a good thing too, because we can focus on ourselves – we don’t have to worry about other results elsewhere.”

I liked the attacking efforts, especially the partnership between Belotti and Abraham.

“I think that you might only have watched the second half. In the first half it was a disaster [laughs].”

Even Belotti? Because he seems to be improving a lot in terms of his sharpness…

“Yes, but in the first half I didn’t see those two doing what I had asked of them. For me, it was a bad first half. In the second half they went out with their ears stinging a bit, because I gave them a bit during the break. But the second half was great, and Tammy and Belotti deserve a lot of credit for the overall improvement of the side.

“And I’m not talking about the goal in that, but more about the decisions made and the way they kept hold of the ball – how they sometimes went in behind and sometimes dropped between the lines, working together. Without the ball, they applied pressure in the right way. I was much happier with the second half.”

This option to have a mobile trequartista like Pellegrini in behind the two strikers – is that something we could see again?

“And make Zaniolo play left wing-back… [laughs].”