Roma 3-1 Fiorentina
José Mourinho’s debut win on the Roma bench on Sunday saw him break a Serie A record upon his return to Italian football. A 3-1 victory against Fiorentina in the capital means Mourinho is the fastest coach to achieve 50 victories in Italy’s top flight, reaching the milestone in just 77 matches stemming from his two-year spell with Inter.
Mourinho also holds the record for the fastest coach to notch 50 victories in the English Premier League and Spain’s La Liga, and he took to social media to highlight the accomplishment with a touch of humorous modesty. “Please don’t show my negative records, just the good ones,” Mourinho wrote on Instagram in response to the story.
Fiorentina provided a strong test for the Giallorossi on Sunday, despite playing a large chunk of the match with a numerical disadvantage when goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski received a red card for a challenge on Tammy Abraham. The hosts took the lead through Henrikh Mkhitaryan to go into the break ahead, but Roma also went down to ten men when youngster Nicolo Zaniolo was dismissed for a second red card early after the re-start.
Fiorentina then levelled through Nikola Milenkovic, but Roma recovered strongly and a brace from Jordan Veretout ultimately saw them to victory. A particularly pleasing aspect of the win was the contribution of new signing Abraham, who registered two assists, drew the Fiorentina red card and hit the crossbar on his first outing since moving from Chelsea in a €40m deal.
“It was a great game, a true battle, even if we didn’t play great,” Mourinho said after the match. “We did well when it was 11 against 11 and then 10 against 10, but when it was 11 against 10, we didn’t do so well. Perhaps that’s because we thought it was going to be easy for us. I said to [Vincenzo] Italiano after the game that, given the way that Fiorentina played tonight, they clearly have a great coach.
Mou's promise
“I liked the spirit we showed, the sacrifices we made, the hard work we put in after a really hard game like we had on Wednesday. But that being said, we ran into some issues I wasn’t expecting. When it was 11 against 10, we lost a bit of our structure and the pressure dropped – but it should have been easier to apply pressure at that point. Then, when it was 10 against 10, we were back in the game – we had the chance to score through Tammy [Abraham], and then after that we did get the goals and were able to see out the game.
“I think the fans saw that today, even if we didn’t play too well. The players gave it everything, despite having played on Thursday, despite having returned at four in the morning and despite not being as fresh as they could have been.
"That heart, that bond with the fans, is my promise: with me we will always give everything.”
Rui Patrício also made his Serie A debut for Roma in the victory, and suggestions are that the spending in Rome is not over. Having been backed with around €100m worth of signings so far, Mourinho is reportedly set to add further players with Swiss midfielder Denis Zakaria speculated to be headed to the Stadio Olimpico from Germans Borussia Monchengladbach.
By Sean Gillen
