Roman commander: how Mourinho won his fifth European Cup final and helped Roma win the Conference League

The atmosphere around the Conference League final escalated to the limit even a day before it began.

On the eve of the meeting in the Albanian capital, there were clashes between fans, which then escalated into riots.

To calm down the unrestrained football fans, the police even had to use tear gas, but they still failed to do without the victims.

As a result, according to media reports, 19 law enforcement officers were hospitalized with various injuries, 60 fans were taken to the station, and another 80 "Italian hooligans" were deported to their homeland.

However, the loss of part of the active group of supporters is unlikely to have had a strong impact on Roma's chances of winning.

Wards of Jose Mourinho were considered, though not obvious, but the favorites of the meeting with Feyenoord, which was facilitated by several circumstances at once.

Their mentor has never lost in European Cup finals, and the Wolves themselves had a much more stellar selection of performers than their rivals.

Moreover, one of the main creators of the Giallorossi, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, entered the field of the Kombetare Arena from the first minutes, although he missed the end of the season due to a hamstring injury.

Four Feyenoord players also appeared in the starting lineup, whose participation in the match until the last remained in doubt.

Arne Slot immediately threw Tyrell defenders Malasia and Gernot Trauner into battle, winger Reiss Nelson and even goalkeeper Justin Beilo, who had not had match practice since March.

At the base, as expected, there was a place for Gus Thiel, rented from Spartak, who became the team's top scorer in the Dutch championship.

At the same time, another red-and-white midfielder, Jorrit Hendrix, was left on the bench.

True, already in the debut of the meeting it became clear that not all of the players who returned to action had time to fully recover from injuries.

Mkhitaryan overestimated his abilities and already in the 15th minute he sat down on the lawn, demonstrating his inability to continue the meeting.

Henrikh was replaced by Sergio Oliveira, and the frustrated Mourinho was not only forced to hastily reshape the squad and make adjustments to the tactical scheme, but also lost one replacement.

Interestingly, it was after the departure of Mkhitaryan that Roma began to get out from under the hard pressure of Feyenoord and act from a position of strength.

Until that moment, Slot's wards not only practically did not give the ball to the opponents, but also did not allow them to breathe, almost the whole team rushing into the tackle in the opponent's half.

But gradually Lorenzo Pellegrini began to get a little more freedom, and Nicolo Zaniolo increasingly found free spaces in the enemy's defensive line.

It was he who burst into the penalty area in the 21st minute, but could not strike.

Before the match, Slot called transitions to the attack through long-range throws the main weapon of Roma and claimed that this would not come as a surprise to his wards.

But it was this technique that over and over again became a problem for the defense of the Dutch, and the first truly alarming bell sounded already in the middle of the half.

Nominal guests in large numbers went ahead and almost missed a counterattack, but Trauner managed to stop Tammy Abraham's breakthrough.

Even at the cost of a yellow card.

Nevertheless, a goal against Feyenoord was brewing and materialized very soon.

The protracted offensive of the "wolves" ended with an accurate long pass by Gianluca Mancini into the penalty area, and Zaniolo again acted as the addressee.

With the first touch, Nikolo processed the pass, and with the second he threw the ball over Beilo, who came out to meet him.

There was a clear feeling of deja vu, because in the previous four European Cup finals, where Mourinho's wards played, they invariably came out ahead, and they scored in the first half.

And only in one case, his team could not win with a "dry" score.

In 2003, Celtic fought to the last with Porto and restored parity twice, but still missed the third time in overtime.

However, at first it was difficult to imagine that Feyenoord would succeed in following the example of the Scots.

Before the break, they scored only one relatively dangerous blow, and he became so largely thanks to Ruy Patricio.

The Portuguese goalkeeper was unable to fix the ball after a long-range “shot” by Orkun Kokcu and made his partners and fans nervous.

But if in the first half Feyenoord looked hopeless at times, then at the beginning of the second, Roma almost swept off the field.

Rotterdam picked up the pace and registered next to the opponent's penalty area, creating three clear chances in five minutes.

After drawing a corner ball into his own net, Mancini almost cut it off, Til could succeed in finishing, and then Malasia was noted with a cannon strike from afar.

But in these episodes, either Patricio showed a phenomenal reaction, or the bars played for the Romans.

It seemed that Feyenoord was about to squeeze Roma and even the score, but gradually the sharpness at the gate of Patricio began to fade.

And although the Slot team did not stop pressing, they clearly lacked specifics.

The best scorers of the Dutch in the Conference League also looked unimportant.

Luis Sinisterra was practically out of the game, and the casts on Cyril Dessers did not reach the addressee.

"Dissolved" and Til, gave way to Jens Thornstra already in the 59th minute.

At some point, Nelson became the main hope of the nominal guests in the attack, but the graduate of Arsenal did not have enough quickness.

Several times he found himself in a striking position and tried to catch Patricio by surprise, but the Roman defenders managed to block his attempts to hit the target.

Subsequently, Slot made four more substitutions, but none of the players who appeared on the field helped turn the tide of the match.

Mourinho, on the contrary, guessed right with almost all the permutations.

Leonardo Spinazzola and Matias Vigna added movement on the flanks and helped take the game away from their goal, Jordan Veretout strengthened the middle line, and Eldor Shomurodov, as usual, actively pressed and did a lot of rough work.

In the end, it was Roma who were closer to the goal, but Pellegrini could not take advantage of a great chance and upset Beilo a second time.

One way or another, Roma kept the winning score and became the first-ever winner of the Conference League, thanks to which they finally replenished their museum with a trophy of a prestigious international competition.

Until now, the Wolves could only boast of success in the Fairs Cup and the Anglo-Italian tournament.

And in its own way, it is surprising that a football player brought her the trophy, which many were quick to write off.

Since the beginning of 2020, Zaniolo has received 12 different injuries and missed a total of 519 days, but managed to cope with the difficulties.

Mourinho also confirmed his nickname - Special - and became the first coach in the XXI century, who managed to win three European Cups.

Before him, this bar was submitted only to Giovanni Trapattoni and Udo Latteku.

However, Jose reached the top with four different teams, which no one had done before.