Ranieri hits back at Mourinho jibes

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ROME, Feb 20, 2010 (AFP) - AS Roma coach Claudio Ranieri on Saturday hit back at Inter Milan counterpart Jose Mourinho's taunts that Roma are a cunning club by saying that the Portuguese has no experience of struggles.

Mourinho claimed on Friday that Roma are always complaining about not having any money because it helps them get better deals in the transfer market.

But ahead of Sunday's clash with Catania, Ranieri said the man who replaced him as Chelsea boss back in 2004 has had things easy.

"I understand Mourinho because he's never found himself in this situation, it's too easy going from (billionaire Chelsea owner Roman) Abramovich to (millionaire Inter president Massimo) Moratti," said Ranieri who then went on to praise Mourinho.

"He's just trying to motivate his team. They've been coasting for a while but now he needs to motivate them because they're coming up against Sampdoria in a very important match and then they have a fundamental game (against Chelsea in the Champions League) next week.

"Acting in this way raises the tension in his own players. He's very good at that and you have to recognise that."

Turning to Sunday's game, Ranieri said he is keen to see how his team bounce back from Thursday's 3-2 Europa League defeat at Panathinaikos, a loss that ended their 20-match unbeaten run.

"I want to see how the team reacts. Sooner or later we had to lose but now we have to forget about that defeat," he said.

"Only by putting in a great performance can we forget it. When we played Catania in the Italian Cup they had great energy and we struggled for an hour."