Conte ponders if Napoli have been cursed as injuries mount
Kevin De Bruyne became the latest key Napoli player to suffer an injury, leaving Antonio Conte to wonder if something sinister is going on.
Antonio Conte has been left to wonder whether his Napoli team have been cursed, due to the amount of injuries they are sustaining.
Kevin De Bruyne became the latest casualty on Saturday, as he injured himself in the process of putting Napoli ahead from a contentiously awarded penalty against Inter.
De Bruyne was seen to be in tears as he left the field, though he was at least able to watch on from the dugout as Napoli went on to seal a 3-1 victory that sent them back to the top of Serie A.
Napoli were without Stanislav Lobotka, Amir Rrahmani, Rasmus Hojlund and Alex Meret, while star striker Romelu Lukaku is a long-term absentee.
"To have won this game, with all the difficulties that we had, missing players like Lobotka, Rrahmani, Meret and Hojlund, then losing De Bruyne, with Lukaku out since pre-season," Conte told DAZN, as quoted by Football Italia.
"Perhaps someone has cursed us, but we keep going anyway. Inter came here today aiming to on a sporting level, "kill" us, as they were in great shape.
"If you understand that moment of the campaign, you have to kill your opponent, but we had no intention of dying.
"In among all those problems, we put in a great performance."
Though Napoli are the reigning champions, Conte feels Inter are the best team in Serie A.
He said: "I live the game with my players, for good and bad, and we played against, in my view, the best squad in Italy.
"They dropped some points along the way, but their squad is on paper on a completely different level to all the others.
"They didn't get to the Champions League Final twice in three years because of a fluke."
Napoli's victory means Conte has now hit the 100-point mark in Serie A with three separate clubs.
