Napoli v Sporting Lisbon: Conte says we're on the right track | OneFootball

Napoli defeated Sporting Lisbon on the second day of the Champions League, with a score of 2-0, both goals scored by Rasmus Hojlund assisted by Kevin De Bruyne. Commenting on the match and the excellent victory was Antonio Conte, the coach of Napoli, speaking to Sky Sport.

Napoli-Sporting Lisbon, Conte to Sky Sport: “We played a great match, the path is set”

These are the words of the coach who responded to questions from the Sky studio: “We played against a very strong team, the champions of Portugal. I played against them with Tottenham and many players are still in the squad. We won as a team, despite the difficulty and the emergency since the entire defensive line changed, including the goalkeeper because Milinkovic-Savic played. There were very good responses from all the substitutes, this is our spirit. It's a shame we conceded the two goals in Milan, but perhaps that defeat gave us an extra boost. If we weren't a real team, today would have been really tough.

De Bruyne, compared to the other eight signings we made, comes from a reality and experience at the highest level. What I always ask the guys is to make themselves available to the team, which combined with the right quality and the right grit makes you stronger. I have nothing to say to Kevin because I know he wants to play, but then substitutions have to be made and they know it. Then, on a media level, if you win, you made good substitutions; if you lose, they were wrong, but it's part of the game.

The performance in Milan was not disappointing at all, but the two goals we conceded immediately are two situations where we need to do better: we analyzed them together with the guys. If at San Siro you go 2-0 down with Milan right away, it becomes difficult to swim against the tide. Moreover, even when we were eleven against eleven, we played the match, something we didn't have last year. Last season in Milan we won 2-0, but they played the match, so we need to increase the desire to dominate without forgetting the excellent defensive principles from months ago.

When I took McTominay off, we switched to a 4-3-3 with Land and Neres wide on the wings, with De Bruyne and Anguissa as midfielders and Lobotka in the center. We have room for improvement, but the possibility of changing formation is there, we have many solutions. There must always be the desire to move forward, to dominate, and to always play the match. Those who come in must bring new energy: the path is set, we are trying to implement some things. Obviously, when we have four midfielders, it's easier to maintain possession, and with the 4-3-3, we do different things by adding our resources.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.