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Roma boss Mourinho: I want to win Coppa Italia - but small teams don't take it seriously

Roma boss Jose Mourinho says the Coppa Italia needs to be tweaked to fulfil it's potential.

Roma remain in the hat after last night's 1-0 win against Genoa.

Mourinho said, “First of all, I'll say I would love to win it, I won it once playing against Roma, I would love to win it playing with Roma in Rome. I think it's the worst cup in Europe, it doesn't protect the smaller teams.

“It doesn't put on a show, I'm talking about Torino for example who win on the pitch of the Italian champions Milan, then they have to play the next elimination game away from home, I don't understand this structure of the Coppa Italia.

“We played against a Serie B team with a full stadium, if there are empty stadiums they must understand why we are full and the others are not.

“Last year we finished sixth, the year before we finished seventh and I want to invest in the Coppa Italia, but a lower team doesn't want to play, what motivation do these people have?

Torino won against the Italian champions, they made great history in the Round of 16 and they have to play away. Where is the beauty of the Coppa Italia? It would be nice to play on a Serie B or Serie C pitch, where is that? Because people accept it.

“The next elimination game will be either in Naples or at home with Cremonese, if we lose like last year, we'll lose but we'll try to win. For a squad like ours, playing three competitions together is very hard.

“There's too much build-up for people of more quality, it's a big risk to play three or four players who don't play all the time or to put so many kids together, I could have done Bove-Tahirovic but I didn't.

“If we want to win the Coppa Italia I won't say we want to because everyone wants to, we will try to win the next game of the tournament."

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Carlos Volcano
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Carlos Volcano

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