MY ACCOUNT
Jose Mourinho has said he wants his former club Inter to win the Serie A title after his Roma were beaten 3-1 by the Nerazzurri on Saturday.
Goals from Denzel Dumfries, Marcelo Brozovic and Lautaro Martinez sent Inter top of the table at San Siro, though Henrikh Mkhitaryan pulled back a late consolation for the Giallorossi.
Having played the same number of games, Inter are now a point ahead of Milan and five beyond Napoli in the race for the Scudetto.
Milan face Lazio in Rome while Napoli travel to Empoli, both on Sunday.
When asked if losing to his former club made defeat any easier, Mourinho insisted not, though did concede that he is backing Simone Inzaghi’s men to defend their title.
“No absolutely not,” he said. “I want to win all the games.
“I love Inter, Inter love me. Obviously now I can say that we don’t play against Inter, Milan, Juve and Napoli, now I can say that I would like Inter to win the Scudetto. But before the game I was only focused on winning.
“I love Inter but I love Rome and I love my job. We are paid to win.”
Roma remain in fifth place, five points behind Juventus in the final Champions League spot having played a game more, and only two points ahead of Fiorentina and Lazio in sixth and seventh, having played two and one games more than both respectively.
Mourinho conceded that his opponents had too much on the day, describing Inter’s players as “animals”.
“They are too much Inter, the strongest team in the league,” he said. “They have strong players on all aspects.
“I say this with respect, there are many ‘animals’ in their team. To win against them you have to find them at a time when they are in trouble, as they were a few weeks ago, or to win against them you have to be perfect and we weren’t. We have been good, but not perfect.
“We did well but then we had a concentration break in the last 10-15 minutes of the first half. Then in the second half we conceded a goal from a set piece and my players knew it perfectly well because we had talked about it so much.”
Roma had previously gone 12 games in Serie A without defeat, having not lost since the dramatic 4-3 reverse against Juventus at the Stadio Olimpico on January 9.
However, Mourinho did take solace in the fact it took a team like Inter to end that run.
“To lose after three months in Serie A, I prefer to lose against a team that is stronger than us.”
