Olaleye IDOWU
Napoli boss, Antonio Conte, has taken a swipe at Chelsea after his team lost at home to the west London side in the Champions League last group stage game on Wednesday night.
He pointed out how much money Chelsea has spent after his Napoli team was eliminated from the Champions League.
Napoli were heading towards the knockout stages after coming back from behind to take the lead against Chelsea with a 2-1 score at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.
Enzo Fernandez scored a penalty in the 19th minute to give the Blues the lead, but Napoli took the half-time lead thanks to goals from Antonio Vergara and Rasmus Hojlund, the former Manchester United striker.
Napoli was in the play-off positions at that time, but Joao Pedro scored two goals in the second half, which caused the Serie A champions to be eliminated.
They ended up finishing 30th out of 36 teams.
Conte, who was disappointed, said Napoli deserved a lot more against Chelsea and pointed out the difference in how much each club spends, after a tough European loss.
“For sure, it’s disappointing,” the former Chelsea manager told reporters. “Not for tonight because I think we played an amazing game against Chelsea. Don’t forget we played with just 13 players because the others were injured.
“Even though that happened, I believe we really should have won the game. We kept on working with a positive attitude. On the other side, there is disappointment.
“I’m proud because it’s not easy to play against Chelsea like this or to make them struggle in this way. Today, we really deserved to do better than just losing the game.”
Conte, who became Napoli’s manager in 2024, added, “If you want to be successful in this competition, you need a lot of money and not just one team of players, but maybe two or even two-and-a-half, like Chelsea.
“If you see tonight the difference between them, it’s too big, the difference is too big. We tried our best, and we really did, but you know, in the Champions League, the same teams often win.”
