Napoli manager, Antonio Conte, has sensationally blamed “the devil” for his side’s 2-0 Champions League defeat to Manchester City on Thursday night.
The Italian tactician, speaking after the loss at the Etihad Stadium, admitted the red card to captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo in the 21st minute turned the game on its head, leaving his team with what he described as “a bitter taste.”
City capitalized on their numerical advantage with goals from Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku to seal the win.
Reflecting on the match, the former Chelsea and Inter Milan boss said Napoli had executed their game plan well in the opening stages but were undone by misfortune.
“Sometimes the devil takes his turn, there’s a cruel twist of fate,” Conte said in his post-match briefing.
“We prepared to play the way we did in the first 20 minutes, but the sending off ruined everything. City would have had a much harder time against us otherwise.”
Conte, who apologized to the Napoli fans, added, “I’m sorry, because these are the kind of matches where one incident can destroy the balance, and you can’t always react in the perfect way.”
