Mourinho: “A very important, hard-fought and deserved win”

How are you feeling about today’s win?

“Today’s win was a victory for the players and the Roma fans that came to this stadium. It’s all theirs. I also want to thank the ownership and Tiago Pinto, who have offered me support over the last 24 hours and given me emotional stability. That’s what I needed to get the job done.

“They trusted me. Today was a very important, hard-fought, deserved win because even when we were 1-0 down, my team was still the best on the pitch. That’s why I’m really happy for my players and for all of our fans. I also want to dedicate a few words to my fantastic assistant, [Salvatore] Foti, who wasn’t here today but worked extremely hard for this victory. I’m dedicating this to him as well.

“The reason I’m speaking Portuguese is because my Italian isn’t refined enough or strong enough to express certain concepts. When I spoke about emotional stability, I was speaking about a quality that you need in life and in football to be able to perform at the highest level. Regarding the situation that caused some irritation for the Sassuolo fans and staff, when we didn’t give a ball back that had been kicked out, I went over to my colleague and said that to receive fair play you must first give it. There’s one particular Sassuolo player that is lacking in that quality.”