AFP: Jose Mourinho said yesterday that “history does not play” as he prepares his Roma team to face Europa League specialists Sevilla in the final in Budapest. The Italian side, who can finish no higher than fifth in Serie A, meet the six-time winners at the Puskas Arena, just 12 months after they won the inaugural Europa Conference League. Mourinho said Roma deserved to be in the showpiece match in the Hungarian capital after an arduous journey.
“It has been a long journey, different from our opponents, who dropped into this competition from the Champions League,” he told his pre-match press conference yesterday. Mourinho said he was aware of the Spanish club’s perfect record in finals in Europe’s second-tier competition — they have won all six they have played. But the Portuguese coach downplayed the relevance of that achievement. “History does not play,” he said. “My colleague (Sevilla coach Jose Luis Mendilibar) thinks otherwise — I have respect for him. “He believes that history makes Sevilla favourites, I respect that. We are in the final because we deserve to be here. “They have a history that we do not have, they have experience that we don’t boast. For them to play the final is a normal thing — for us it is an extraordinary event but tomorrow when the game starts we will be there.”