Napoli boss Antonio Conte rallied his troops ahead of a do-or-die UEFA Champions League clash with Chelsea on Wednesday, urging his injury-stricken team to continue defying expectations, just like they have done all season.
Napoli had already lost midfield maestro Kevin de Bruyne to a hamstring injury in October and will also be without goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, midfielder Andre-Frank Anguissa, centre-back Amir Rrahmani, right-back Pasquale Mazzochi, and forwards David Neres and Matteo Politano for the Chelsea game.
Champions League match against Chelsea. Pic/Getty Images
“I challenge anyone to find me a team which has had all of these problems. We started with the idea that the emergency would finish, but the emergency hasn’t finished, in fact it has got worse. The boys are doing something incredible which is going unnoticed because of where we are in the league. I believe that if we started the season a month ago with this squad, you’d say ‘you’re going nowhere’. But we’re still here, fighting with our heads held high,” said Conte. The Serie A winners are in 25th place with eight points from seven games. They need to beat the Blues and ensure a few other results go their way if they are to make it to the Play-offs.
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