Jose Mourinho confronted English referee Anthony Taylor in a car park on Wednesday night, branding him a “f—ing disgrace” after his Roma team lost the Europa League final to Sevilla.
Mourinho was seen in a clip shared by Sportitalia lambasting the referee for his “bulls—” decisions as Taylor tried to leave the Puskas Arena in Budapest.
Roma lost 4-1 on penalties but Mourinho was especially unhappy about the 14 cards Taylor issued in the game, a record for a European final.
After accusing Taylor of “seeming Spanish”, the Roma manager can be seen in the video approaching the match officials’ minibus and shouting “F—ing disgrace man, it’s a f—ing disgrace” before then switching to Italian to further berate Taylor.
He added: “Congratulations, you f—ing disgrace… F— off.”
Sevilla worked their European magic yet again to lift the trophy for a record-extending seventh time, handing Mourinho his first defeat in six European finals.
An unspectacular match ended 1-1 after extra time but Sevilla beat the Italians in the shootout, with Gonzalo Montiel firing home the winning spot kick, just as he did for Argentina in the World Cup final against France.
Half an hour of stoppage time
It was a tense and ill-tempered final from the start on Wednesday, with both benches regularly protesting Taylor’s decisions and the referee was forced to add almost 30 minutes of stoppage time.
Roma’s bench were furious that Erik Lamela was not shown a second yellow card for a foul and their anger was compounded when the former Tottenham winger went on to score in the shootout.
Mourinho was booked towards the end of extra time and later accused Taylor of “seeming Spanish”.
“Next year we won’t be playing the Champions League and that’s a good thing because we’re not made for it,” Mourinho told reporters.
“And let’s hope that Taylor only officiates games in the Champions League and does the same bull— there that he did tonight, and not in the Europa League.”
“It was an intense, vibrant game with a referee who seemed Spanish. It was yellow, yellow, yellow all the time.”
Diego Llorente, the Roma defender, echoed his manager, adding: “Today in all the dubious episodes, the yellow cards… the referee blew the whistle in favour of Sevilla.”
“I am surprised because he is an international referee who has a great reputation.”
Remarkably, Mourinho claimed after the match that he had “never been prouder” of his team because “we did not lose our dignity” – despite receiving nine bookings as well as one for Mourinho himself.
“I’ve won five European finals over the years and on this occasion I’m no less proud than the five times I won,” Mourinho said. “I am proud of the players. I told them before that we would either be leaving with the cup or we’d be dead on our feet.
“We’re leaving dead on our feet. The players are totally exhausted and so am I, both physically and psychologically.”
“We felt pressure against a team that has more talent than us. We lost a game but not dignity. I’ve never gone home prouder than today, even when I won.
“We had also worked hard on penalties but we missed two – but all together, not only the penalty takers.
“The boys must go home peacefully, with pride for having done what they have done. These are my boys from Budapest.”
Sevilla’s Europa League pedigree
Sevilla, the undisputed kings of the Europa League, have now won all seven of the finals they have played in the competition, and are well-versed in the drama of the occasion, having seen their opponents score first in the past four finals.
Paulo Dybala gave Roma the lead from a counterattack in the 35th minute but Sevilla then took control of the game and found the equaliser thanks to an own-goal by Mancini in the 55th minute.
Sevilla dominated the match after that but Roma had the better chances from counterattacks and set-pieces, including a Chris Smalling header that hit the crossbar in the 10th minute of added time.
Sevilla keeper Yassine Bounou was their hero in the shootout, saving penalties from Gianluca Mancini and Roger Ibanez while the Spaniards were flawless in their own execution, scoring their first four.
It fell – twice – to Montiel to score the winning kick in the shootout.
The defender had missed his first effort but was handed a reprieve when Roma keeper Rui Patricio was adjudged by VAR to have come off the line too early and he made no mistake with his second, sparking jubilant celebrations.
Mourinho had never lost a European final before Wednesday, having last year led Roma to the inaugural Europa Conference League title, becoming the first coach to win all the European trophies.
Losing was clearly a painful experience for the Portuguese who handed his runners-up medal to a fan in the stand after the presentation.
“That’s what I did, I don’t want silver medals. I don’t keep silver medals, so I gave it away,” he told Movistar.