Antonio Conte warns Napoli have ‘solely 13 outfield gamers accessible’ towards Chelsea within the Champions League, so his most important ask is to play with ‘heads held excessive.’
It kicks off on the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona at 20.00 GMT (21.00 CET).
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The Partenopei know they threat an early elimination from Europe, as they go into this remaining spherical of the league section in twenty fifth place.
Conte annoyed at Napoli accidents
NAPLES, ITALY – JANUARY 07: Antonio Conte SSC Napoli head coach throughout the Serie A match between SSC Napoli and Hellas Verona FC at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on January 07, 2026 in Naples, Italy. (Picture by Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Photos)
“It’s by no means simple whenever you get to the ultimate spherical and qualification is up for grabs,”
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“We wasted an enormous alternative in Copenhagen and immediately need to struggle it out towards a really robust crew, throughout a second the place we’re lacking a number of gamers.
“I instructed the lads to maintain doing what we’re doing, on a tactical degree and when it comes to mentality. These are possibilities for us to measure ourselves up towards groups of this degree, so regardless of all of the absences and difficulties, we’ve obtained to provide our all.
“That doesn’t imply victory is assured, however we are able to go away the pitch with our heads held excessive, with a end result that we hope can take us into the play-offs.”
Napoli scraped solely two wins, two attracts and three defeats, failing to get greater than a 1-1 end result away to 10-man FC Copenhagen final week.
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That was adopted by a painful 3-0 Serie A defeat to Juventus, because the damage disaster is de facto taking its toll.
ROME, ITALY – JANUARY 04: SSC Napoli head coah Antonio Conte throughout the Serie A match between SS Lazio and SSC Napoli at Stadio Olimpico on January 04, 2026 in Rome, Italy. (Picture by Marco Rosi – SS Lazio/Getty Photos)
David Neres, Matteo Politano, Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, Amir Rrahmani, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, Billy Gilmour and Kevin De Bruyne are all out of motion.
“I’ve by no means seen a state of affairs like this anyplace on this planet, we have now solely 13 outfield gamers accessible, and Lukaku has at most quarter-hour in his legs,” continued Conte.
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“This tells you the problem of the state of affairs, however we’ve been occurring like this for a very long time. I assumed it will get higher with time, however it really obtained worse, shedding Neres, Rrahmani, Politano and Milinkovic-Savic.
CASTEL DI SANGRO, ITALY – AUGUST 14: Romelu Lukaku of Napoli leaves the pitch after struggling an damage throughout the pre-season pleasant match between Napoli and Olympiacos at Stadio Teofilo Patini on August 14, 2025 in Castel di Sangro, Italy. (Picture by Giuseppe Bellini/Getty Photos)
“These are conditions we should face with heads held excessive, with braveness and starvation, making an attempt to play our sport with out sitting again in defence.
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“We should do what we’ve at all times achieved, attempt to assault them and damage the crew that’s after all of the reigning Membership World Cup champion.
“We wish to perceive if we’re heading in the right direction and the way a lot distance separates us from that degree. We should overlook about being Champions of Italy.”