Coach Spalletti: 'Napoli is naive in the Champions League'

"First of all, we congratulate Milan. They took advantage of almost every opportunity over the two games," Spalletti told Mediaset. "It's a sign of a dirty old team that knows when to press and when to defend the majority. I also want to commend my players for playing well in the Champions League. We paid the price for it. a few moments of innocence and inexperience in handling the game."

Napoli played convincingly in the group stage when they overcame Liverpool to take the top of Group A. In the 1/8 round, they won convincingly Eintracht Frankfurt with a total score of 5-0. This performance, along with the dominance in Serie A, makes Spalletti's army more appreciated than Milan. In the first leg, they lost 0-1 at San Siro. Returning to Diego Armando Maradona's home ground yesterday, they once again conceded a goal by Olivier Giroud's goal. Victor Osimhen's late equalizer was not enough for Spalletti's teachers and students to turn the game around.

Thus, in 16 days, Napoli met Milan three times and could not win. Besides the two Champions League matches was a 0-4 defeat in Serie A. "Some of our players returned from the national team gathering in bad shape. Especially Osimhen, who was absent. 20 days because of injury. Napoli made a few mistakes, but was also treated unfairly in some situations," Spalletti explained.

In the second leg, Napoli suffered when Matteo Politano and Mario Rui were reluctant to leave the field due to injury. Left-back Rui made a mistake, bringing a penalty for Milan in the 22nd minute, but Giroud missed it. Napoli were also awarded a penalty in the second half after Fikayo Tomori let the ball touch, but Khvicha Kvaratskhelia failed to make it.

According to Spalletti, Napoli was more active in both matches but did not know how to make a difference like the opponent. "Maybe the 4-0 win against Torino made Napoli believe that we had the Serie A title in hand, so we didn't focus on the 0-4 loss to Milan afterwards. But the two Champions League confrontations are completely different. Yes, they missed the penalty, but it was a situation Napoli could have avoided. Our goal was the same. Napoli controlled the game and created the equalizer but let the opposition turn the game around. They scored. Even in the only situation we got the ball into the box while we didn't," commented the 64-year-old coach.