Antonio Conte has admitted Napoli’s injury crisis is becoming increasingly difficult to manage, describing his side’s situation as almost “cursed” following their hard-fought 3-1 victory over Inter Milan on Saturday.
Kevin De Bruyne became the latest name on the club’s growing injury list after picking up a knock while converting a controversial first-half penalty to open the scoring at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
The Belgian midfielder was visibly emotional as he limped off but remained on the bench to cheer on his teammates as Napoli secured a vital win to reclaim top spot in Serie A.
Conte was already without several key players, including Stanislav Lobotka, Amir Rrahmani, Rasmus Hojlund, and goalkeeper Alex Meret, while star forward Romelu Lukaku continues his recovery from a long-term injury.
“To have won this game, with all the difficulties that we had, missing players like Lobotka, Rrahmani, Meret and Hojlund, then losing De Bruyne, with Lukaku out since pre-season, perhaps someone has cursed us, but we keep going anyway,” Conte told DAZN, as quoted by Football Italia.
Inter came here today aiming to on a sporting level, “kill” us, as they were in great shape. If you understand that moment of the campaign, you have to kill your opponent, but we had no intention of dying. In among all those problems, we put in a great performance.”
Conte also reserved lofty for Inter Milan, who he believes have the best squad in the entire Italian Serie A.
“I live the game with my players, for good and bad, and we played against, in my view, the best squad in Italy.
“They dropped some points along the way, but their squad is on paper on a completely different level to all the others.
“They didn’t get to the Champions League Final twice in three years because of a fluke.”
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