Mourinho grimly watches Salzburg manager copy celebration before awkward ‘special’ remark

Jose Mourinho may still be adored in Italy, but it turns out that’s very much not the case in Austria.

His Roma side are flying high in Serie A, but they crashed back down to earth against Salzburg, and Mourinho’s famed demands for ‘respect’ quickly went missing.

Taking on the Austrian Bundesliga champions and European regulars in the first leg of their Europa League knockout round play-off, Roma came away a goal down.

It was far from a simple 1-0, though, with Nicolas Capaldo’s winner coming in the 88th minute, sparking wild celebrations.

So big was the goal, that Salzburg’s 34-year-old manager Matthias Jaissle couldn’t restrain himself and headed down the touchline to join in with the party.

The scenes were reminiscent of Mourinho at Old Trafford with FC Porto in 2004, when he announced himself onto the world stage.

The Portuguese famously ran down the pitch to join in with his players celebrating as they knocked out Manchester United on their way to Champions League glory.

And he didn’t look happy at all getting a taste of his own medicine as Jaissle, almost half his age, recreated the stunt.

There was another blast from the past too, with one of Mourinho’s most famous quotes from that era coming back to haunt him in an excruciatingly awkward post-match interview.

An Austrian reporter said: “The ‘Special One’ is with me, but it wasn’t a special night tonight, why was that?”

Mourinho started terrifyingly back at the reporter, saying he couldn’t hear her, and then after she repeated the question, he simply said: “I don’t understand your question.”

Not done with his night’s entertainment, Mourinho then took the chance to have a pop at his opponents in his press conference.

“We don’t have a squad like Salzburg, and we don’t play in a league like Salzburg plays,” he began.

“We play in a league where every match is very difficult, we play in a league where every point is gold for us.

“Salzburg plays in a league where they are dominant, where they have easy matches, where they can rotate players, and they have the squad to rotate players.”