Conte rage at referee and Napoli injury crisis after Coppa Italia elimination
Antonio Conte explained his anger at the referee after the Coppa Italia shoot-out exit to Como, but above all the injury crisis. ‘We’re having an incredibly positive season, in the circumstances.’
They were held to a 1-1 draw at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, as Antonio Vergara struck at the dawn of the second half to cancel out the Martin Baturina penalty.
There was a great deal of controversy too, as at the 50th minute Jacobo Ramon was fortunate not to receive a second yellow card for his foul on Rasmus Hojlund on the edge of the penalty area.
Even the first card caused some anger on the touchline, as some thought Ramon’s foul on Hojlund was enough to warrant a straight red for denying a clear scoring opportunity.
Conte fuming at referee after Napoli exit
“Let’s not always go and talk about referees, because there’s always going to be someone complaining,” Conte told Sport Mediaset when asked immediately about those decisions.
“It’s certainly not a good season for referees and for VAR, I hope they can find something that will improve the situation. The fact is, everyone is complaining, coaches, players and fans, so the sport needs to step up and improve, because just as we improve our teams, Rocchi has to improve his referees and VAR officials.
“It’s not good for football, it’s not good for us.”
It went to not just a penalty shoot-out, but sudden death, where the decisive errors were made by Romelu Lukaku and Stanislav Lobotka.
“I credit the lads, because it was certainly not easy to face a Como side with a full squad available, who had rested for 10 days,” continued Conte.
“We were coming off a game played against Genoa three days ago, which we ended with 10 men and lost another player to injury, as Scott McTominay is so important for us.”
The Partenopei were already out of the Champions League and are now eliminated from the Coppa Italia in the quarter-final stage too.
“I can only praise these players, because we are pushing beyond our current potential. We have very few resources available, which are simply nowhere near the ambitions that we should’ve had for this season.
“Despite that, the lads are doing remarkably well. Como will go into the semi-final, we won the Supercoppa Italiana and the Scudetto in the last year and a half. It’s disappointing, because there are years where you’d want to do more, but considering the squad at our disposal right now, any coach would struggle.
“I thank the fans, who can see the effort we are putting in against a complete Como squad. Despite all the difficulties, we were centimetres away from qualifying for the semi-final.”
At least with only Serie A to focus on and one game per week, Conte was asked if he could promise Napoli can at least try to challenge Inter for the Scudetto now, and potentially find out why they’ve had so many injuries?
“What an absurd question,” he laughed bitterly.
“How can you predict Di Lorenzo’s injury, or Lukaku with a detached tendon, De Bruyne with damage to a tendon in a leg he already had an operation on, or Gilmour who needs surgery and spends months out. How can you predict that?
“What we can do is go to a shrine and pray, because these are injuries that last for the whole season. With six or seven important players out for months at a time, it forces the same ones to keep playing all the time, so that creates problems for McTominay and Rrahmani.
“I don’t think this sort of thing has ever happened to another club. On top of that, I was told we couldn’t do anything on the transfer market either, we brought in two young lads to give us a hand.
“I think what we are doing this season is incredibly positive, in the circumstances. As for the Scudetto, there’s a nine-point gap, we have serious problems and you are talking about the Scudetto. Come on. There’s Inter, Milan, Roma, Juventus, even Como, what are we talking about?
“We have to be serious in questions and evaluations too, otherwise it all becomes ridiculous,” concluded a visibly angry Conte.