Napoli, Antonio Conte: "We were lackluster"

Napoli coach Antonio Conte spoke to the microphones of Sky Sports immediately after the 2-0 defeat in Lisbon against Jose Mourinho’s Benfica in the Champions League match on the sixth day.

“The match was definitely tough, difficult, on a hot pitch. We are coming from a series of matches every 3 days, they are playing the same ones all the time and it is inevitable that a little something will start to accuse. Sunday’s match was a big one, we had to travel, Benfica played on Friday, that’s 2 extra days of recovery. However, we have to budget for these things, we knew we had spent a lot of energy mentally as well. Today someone was tired, you could see it, and there is no possibility to make particular rotations. Tomorrow they will be quiet, then we will prepare for the Udine game.”

“Definitely not being brilliant leads you to make bad choices or not be as accurate. In the beginning we struggled and made mistakes. However, we knew the difficulties, we wanted to start strong and on the first pressure we got a ball behind, this took away some certainties. In the first half we were very long, and they were finding passing lines. I know the situation, and I also knew it when we won, and I also know that we will carry it for a while. You also have to understand that there are nights when opponents have more energy than you, and today they deserved more than we did.”

“There will also be championship and Super Cup. I hope to recover as soon as possible Lobotka and Gutierrez, the others not. Romelu we don’t know when he will be back. All these competitions worry me, it worries me not to have the energy to face them. Today we should have been at our best, and we came in a little bit cooked.”