Soccer: Mourinho gracious in defeat after Roma Cup exit

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 2 - AS Roma coach Jose Mourinho was gracious in defeat after Cremonese beat his men 2-1 in the Italian Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday to continue their giant-killing exploits after knocking out Serie A leaders Napoli in the previous round.
    The visitors progressed to the semi-finals thanks to a Cyriel Dessers penalty and a Zeki Celik own goal, with Andrea Belotti pulling one back for Roma in stoppage time.
    "Congratulations to Cremonese. They have won two tough games, against Napoli and against Roma away from home" Mourinho said.
    "This is a strange competition, which stacks the odds against teams that were not in Serie A last season, like Cremonese, or who finished in the lower part of the table (by making them play away).
    "That makes what they've done even more impressive - they deserve credit and are deservedly in the semi-final, congratulations.
    "We paid the price for a terrible first half, a very poor performance.
    "Then, in the second, we made an individual mistake.
    "The mistake in the first half fit into the context of the game considering we were playing so poorly.
    "While the one made in the second half was out of the blue, a mistake that cost us the second goal.
    "Then we had a positive reaction, but they defended with a lot of bodies, and we had no luck in front of goal. We could have easily scored much earlier than we did.
    "But there it is. Over the years I have learned not to cry after a defeat and to instead look forward to the next game.
    "Our squad struggles when we are forced into rotation, we struggle to play three games in one week.
    "However, getting back to the match tonight, we deserved to pay the price for how we played in the first half." (ANSA).