Following Saturday’s vital 1-0 victory for his Roma team at Torino, Jose Mourinho could not help but take a shot at Serie A rivals Juventus.
When Milan and Inter drew on Friday, Paulo Dybala’s eighth-minute penalty gave the Giallorossi all the points they needed to move into third place.
Juve’s 2-1 loss at Lazio left the Bianconeri with 44 points, nine fewer than Mourinho’s team, but the former Chelsea and Real Madrid manager is not sure that will still be the case.
The appeal Juve lodged against their 15-point penalty for transfer fee irregularities will be heard on April 19, meaning the top-four picture could eventually look very different.
Speaking after the win in Turin, Mourinho did not care about the quality of the performance, just the three points, before referencing Juve’s situation.
“Matches are won when you score one more goal than your opponent,” he told DAZN. “This is the goal not only in football but in sport: you have to win by trying to exploit your qualities and try to hide the problems.
“We are third in the standings? Are we sure that Juve don’t have 59 points? We are in Italy.”
Since 2004-05, Dybala (11 goals, six assists) is only the second player to score more than 10 goals and record more than five assists in a debut season for Roma in Serie A, after Mohamed Salah in 2015-16.
Roma have nine league games remaining as well as their upcoming Europa League quarter-final against Feyenoord, and Mourinho is hopeful of success on both fronts despite what he sees as squad limitations.
“The opponent that worries me the most in the Champions League fight? Ourselves, the fact that we want to think like a great team but we have a squad with limits,” he said.
“We have three games a week and it’s hard for us, but I’m not capable of thinking small. We go ahead from game to game.
“I’m not able to say that Udinese is less important than Feyenoord – let’s think game by game. Today we didn’t score a second goal, otherwise the game would have been completely different.”