Antonio Conte’s disappointing performances in Europe have again become the subject of scrutiny after Napoli were knocked out of the Champions League.
A 3-2 defeat to Chelsea at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Wednesday evening ended Napoli’s hopes of a Champions League play-off spot, relegating the Serie A champions from 25th to 30th at the start of the match.
It was the latest addition to an all-too-familiar story for Conte, who has now failed to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League four times in six attempts.
Despite winning the Scudetto with Juventus, Internazionale and Napoli, and conquering the Premier League with Chelsea, Conte has struggled to match his dominant domestic record in Europe.
Antonio Conte’s modest record in European competition
A quarter-final finish in his first season at Juventus remains Conte’s best return from seven Champions League campaigns as manager, while his most notable achievement in Europe came five years ago when his Inter side were defeated by Sevilla in the Europa League final.
Conte can point to a number of mitigating factors, not least an injury list that left Napoli missing 13 players, seven of whom would otherwise have started against Chelsea. “The wind is against you and the waves are high,” the Italian noted.
Conte could also have been forgiven for highlighting a string of setbacks in this season’s competition.
Club captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo was dismissed early in Napoli’s 2-0 defeat at Manchester City. Alessandro Bungiorno fired through his own net for PSV before Lorenzo Lucca was sent off for dissent, leading to a late collapse as Napoli were awarded a six-hit. When Napoli played against ten men in Copenhagen earlier this month, they were unable to capitalize on their numerical advantage and drew 1-1.
One thing happened after another, and yet it was Napoli’s schedule that seemed to anger Conte more than anything.
Napoli’s fixture list ‘difficult to understand’, says Antonio Conte
“It’s hard to understand who makes the fixtures and plays three games in seven days,” said Conte, whose side were beaten 3-0 by Juventus on Sunday and hosted Fiorentina at teatime on Saturday.
“I would like to know who the genius is who makes the fixtures. We play on Sunday, then now at 9 p.m. and then Saturday at 6 p.m. They talk about injuries and a lot of other things, but other than that they don’t care.”
What is worrying, however, are the financial consequences if no progress is made in Europe. Although Napoli’s campaign was worth an estimated £41 million, progress to the last 16 would have earned at least another £10 million, a not insignificant sum for a club that made a net loss of around £18.5 million last summer.
The priority for Conte now is to ensure that Napoli, currently fourth in Serie A but just a point ahead of Roma, qualify for next season’s Champions League.
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