Roma head coach Jose Mourinho has labelled the Coppa Italia as "the worst cup in Europe" despite Giallorossi's 1-0 win over Genoa on Thursday.
Mourinho's side booked their place in the quarter-finals with Thursday's triumph, courtesy of Paulo Dybala's 64th-minute winner, setting up a clash with the winner of the Napoli-Cremonese Round of 16 encounter.
But the Portuguese legend was damning of the Coppa Italia format in light of Torino's upset 1-0 extra-time win over Milan on Wednesday, which saw them progress to the last eight where they will face Fiorentina away.
"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," Mourinho told Sportmediaset.
"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."
Roma, who have advanced to the Europa League knockout round playoffs, bowed out in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals last season to eventual winners Inter.
Al Hilal crowned Saudi Pro League champions after Al Hazm hammering
Al Hilal secured their fourth straight Saudi Pro League title after Aleksandar Mitrovic starred in Saturday's 4-1 thrashing of bottom side Al Hazm.
Faiz Selemani restored parity after Mitrovic's 15th-minute opener at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, only for Jorge Jesus' hosts to roar back and be crowned champions with three games remaining.
Ahmed Al Juwaid's own goal handed the initiative back to the dominant Al Hilal, who led 4-1 at the break after Mitrovic added another to his tally and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic was on target.
The second of Mitrovic's strikes took him to a team-leading 26 league goals this term as Al Hilal breezed to another title, moving an unassailable 12 points clear of Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr.
Jesus' side are unbeaten through all 31 games this season after securing their record-extending 19th top-flight crown in history, while Al Hazm need to win their last three matches to have any chance of staying up.
Al Hazm's relegation rivals Al Tai boosted their chances of survival in Saturday's earlier clash after a 1-1 draw away against Al Raed.
Al Tai are just a point away from 15th-placed Abha Club in their bid for top-flight safety after Ibrahim Al Nakhli's strike was cancelled out by Al Raed's Mohammed Fouzair in the second half.
Al-Ittihad 0-5 Al-Ettifaq: Ekambi scores hat-trick in five-star display
Karl Toko Ekambi netted a hat-trick as Al-Ettifaq got back to winning ways in style with a 5-0 thrashing of Al-Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League on Friday.
He scored twice in four minutes at the end of the first half to send the visitors into the break 4-0 up before getting his third just 10 minutes after the break.
Seko Fofana had already given Steven Gerrard’s side the lead five minutes into the contest, while Moussa Dembele doubled their advantage from the penalty spot.
Al-Ittihad had the chances, but they could not find the back of the net, as they stayed fifth, but are now just six points above Al-Ettifaq.
Data Debrief: Clinical finishers
Al-Ettifaq had five shots on target against Al-Ittihad, scoring with all of them while creating an xG of 3.62.
With his hat-trick against Al-Ittihad, Ekambi has now scored 11 goals for the season, netting more than once for the first time since joining the club.
Bayer Leverkusen deserve treble, says Xabi Alonso after Roma late show
Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso said his team deserve to win all three trophies available to them this season after they qualified for the Europa League final by seeing off Roma on Thursday.
Leverkusen, who have already wrapped up the Bundesliga title and will contest the DFB-Pokal final on May 25, stretched their unbeaten run through all competitions this season to 49 matches, surpassing Benfica's long-standing European top-tier record set between 1963 and 1965.
Once again, they did it the hard way after two Leandro Paredes penalties wiped out their first-leg advantage, with a Gianluca Mancini own goal and a stoppage-time strike from Josip Stanisic completing a dramatic comeback.
Following their 4-2 aggregate victory, Roma will face Atalanta in the May 22 final in Dublin, after La Dea overcame Marseille 4-1 on aggregate in the other semi-final.
"We'll play two finals in a week as a result," Alonso said. "We showed great character today after their second goal.
"I looked my players in the eye afterwards and saw that they wanted more.
"We still have the chance to win three titles, and my boys deserve all three titles."
Despite going 3-2 up on aggregate when Mancini put through his own net, Leverkusen refused to sit back as they looked to preserve their unbeaten record, which they did through Stanisic's 97th-minute strike.
Asked whether that goal was one of the biggest moments of his career, the Bayern Munich loanee said: "Definitely one of them.
"We knew what was at stake, we really wanted to get to the final and I think you could see that over 90 minutes today.
"I don't think we would have cared in the end if we lost and still progressed because we really wanted to get to the final, but it's even nicer this way."
For Roma, the chance to reach a second straight Europa League final after last season's defeat by Sevilla on penalties slipped away in the dying minutes of the match.
"When you manage to get it back from 2-0 down and go close to the miracle, knowing nobody has ever beaten them this season, it hurts to see us concede a goal like that. It hurts," Roma boss Daniele De Rossi told Sky Sports Italia.
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