José Mourinho’s Roma beat Sampdoria 1-0 on Monday evening to make it three straight wins in Serie A and maintain their position in the Champions League places.
Lorenzo Pellegrini’s early penalty gave the Giallorossi a hard-fought victory, on a night which saw Mourinho up against one of his former players from his time at Inter, Dejan Stankovic, who was recently appointed by Sampdoria.
“It is a very important victory and I believe one that is deserved,” Mourinho told reporters after the game. “It is a very important result for us, because we showed character, soul, intelligence and heart. Some might think differently, but we are used to that.
“We played against Inter and people said we won because Inter were bad, but then Inter beat Barcelona and drew at Camp Nou. We lost to Atalanta: a cynical side that had just one shot on target that day.
“It’s tough for people to give credit to those who work here, but the truth is that with all the problems and limitations we have, we are having the best possible campaign.
“It was a special embrace [with Stankovic] and he is a special guy. I don’t know if I can tell you what I said to him, but one of the things I said was: ‘Remember that crazy goal you scored here?’ He hit one from midfield!
“He said he cared about me, I replied the same and we’ll meet later.”
Roma are currently without major summer signings Paolo Dybala and Georgino Wijnaldum, as well as Zeki Celik, Marash Kumbulla and Ebrima Darboe. The win keeps Mourinho’s men in 4th place, four points adrift of leaders Napoli.
By Sean Gillen
