Antonio Conte told Rafa Benitez to “check his calculations,” but confessed Napoli deserved to beat Juventus” data-scaytid=”3″>Juventus.
Antonio Conte told Rafa Benitez to “check his calculations,” but confessed Napoli deserved to beat Juventus.
“It certainly wasn’t a good first half performance, in terms of approach, character or anything,” the Coach told Sky Sport Italia after a 2-0 defeat at the Stadio San Paolo.
“Napoli played a very good first half and we paid the price for the fact we’ve got such a packed fixture list and the injury emergency means the same players have to play all the time.
“We were facing a Napoli side that was built to win and not to take part. After all, a club that spends more than €100m on the transfer market cannot be happy just to take part.”
It was a reference to Benitez repeatedly pointing out Juve have to be favourites thanks to their revenue, which is much higher than any of the other Serie A clubs.
“The revenue issue is one of opinion. You can make €500m revenue, but it depends on how much you invest in the squad. Napoli spent more in one year than Juventus have in three,” continued Conte.
“We paid out €25m, but covered that expenditure with sales like Emanuele Giaccherini. I hope Benitez will stop saying this or at least check his calculations. It’s important to say the truth and not just spreading stories that have no real basis in fact.
“The numbers are there, you can look at them. Juventus spent €25m on the transfer market this summer and Napoli spent €100m in order to go out of the Champions League in the group phase and the Europa League in the Round of 16.
“We try to reply on the field by winning and hope to do so again this season.”
Carlos Tevez was suspended and Juve really missed the Capocannoniere this evening.
“Let’s not forget Mirko Vucinic was out for two and a half months, Sebastian Giovinco returned this week and we’ve had a big emergency situation. It is inevitable Fernando Llorente would feel tired, as he is playing all the time. Daniel Osvaldo does well when called upon. Carlos is clearly a leader and someone who makes his presence felt in fiery games like this.
“Napoli did well to peg us back and we were also not aggressive enough to contrast them. We were playing against a very good side and it can happen when playing every three days to pay a price for fatigue.
“They seemed hungrier in the first half, but we had a strong reaction after the break and nobody could’ve complained if we had equalised. Of course, looking at the 90 minutes Napoli deserved the win.”
Conte was also asked about Jose Mourinho’s comments this week, in which the Chelsea manager said Juventus could not consider it a success to win the Europa League when they were constructed to win the Champions League.
“Mourinho was not talking about Juventus. He discussed Porto, Benfica and Napoli, so I think he was trying to make what Benitez did winning the Europa League last season with Chelsea seem less impressive. His real target was Benitez.”