🤯 Serie A king, Champions flop: can Conte break Napoli's curse? | OneFootball

923 days after the 0-0 home draw in the return match against Milan, which cost his Tottenham elimination in the round of 16, Antonio Conte returns to play a Champions League match.

The coach arrives at the very challenging match awaiting Napoli at the Etihad Stadium against Manchester City with the wind in his sails. Coming off a season without European competitions in which he led the Neapolitan team to win the Scudetto and boasting a start to the season with 3 wins out of 3 in Serie A, the coach is called to confirm the status achieved also in Europe.

👎 Conte flop in Champions

Until now, the Champions League has been the only negative thorn in Conte's career. A winner 6 times in national leagues (5 in Serie A and one in the Premier League), he has never surpassed the quarter-finals in the top European competition in the 6 occasions he participated. The best result, moreover, was achieved in his debut in the tournament when he was on the Juventus bench and has never been repeated.

Consider that the coach's average points in the league is 2.05 in 492 matches played and that in Serie A he has just become the one who took the fewest games (244) to reach 550 points. In the Champions League, the average is just 1.40 over 73 matches.

Some of these eliminations have been nothing short of sensational. Consider the three group stage exits, the first with Juventus and the subsequent ones with Inter. The one with Juventus is particularly memorable, happening at the hands of a Galatasaray much less competitive than today's.

🤞 The desire for redemption

During the first press conference of the year, Antonio Conte was questioned by the Neapolitan press and expressed two very clear concepts. On one hand, the belief that he always participated with squads not sufficiently seasoned to be competitive, and on the other, the admission of guilt regarding his own impatience. Both Inter and Juventus, in fact, reached their peak in the Champions League after his departure. This point gives hope to Napoli fans regarding the possibility of a long-term stay.

Another argument that minimizes the theories that the coach struggles with dual commitments is his performance in the Europa League. With Juventus, he was only eliminated in the semi-final, and with Inter, he came close to lifting the trophy against Sevilla in Cologne. The emblem of bad luck was the decisive own goal by his protégé Romelu Lukaku.

However, every existing excuse will be superfluous without a change of pace. Napoli certainly does not have the depth and quality of the squad to set the goal of reaching the end, but a good run and reaching the playoffs are achievable objectives. Starting from the prestigious night against Pep Guardiola, against whom he surprisingly has a favorable record (4 wins and 3 losses), the coach will have to prove his worth even beyond national borders.

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

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