Napoli head coach Antonio Conte underlined the huge spending at Stamford Bridge after Chelsea beat his side 3-2 to dump them out of the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Antonio Vergara cancelled out Enzo Fernandez’s early penalty, which opened the scoring for Chelsea in Naples, with a wonderful dribble and finish in the Blues penalty area.
Rasmus Hojlund put Napoli back ahead before the half-time interval but two second-half goals from Joao Pedro gave Chelsea all three points and a sixth-placed finish in the Champions League table.
Napoli, who needed a win to secure a play-off spot, crashed out of the competition and Conte insisted that it is hard to compete with clubs like Chelsea, who have spent lots of money in recent years.
Conte said after the match: “For sure it is disappointing. Not for tonight because I think we played an amazing game against Chelsea.
“Don’t forget we played with only 13 players – the rest were injured. Despite this I think we deserved much more to lose the game.
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“This is the positive that we continued to work. On the other side there is disappointment.
“I’m proud, it’s not easy to play Chelsea in this way or to put them in difficulty in this way. Today we deserved much more than to lose the game.”
Conte added: “If you want to have success in this competition, there needs to be a lot of money invested and have not just one team [of players] but two, maybe two-and-a-half. Like Chelsea.
“If you see tonight the difference between us and them it’s too much, the difference is too much.
“We have to do our best and we did but you know in the Champions League there is often the same winners.”
Chelsea recently appointed Liam Rosenior after sacking Enzo Maresca and the Englishman is having a good start as manager of the west London club.
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Rosenior said after Chelsea secured top-eight qualification: “I thought the character of the players, their resilience in the second half and their reaction to going behind was so positive.
“I wanted to go aggressive in the first half – we had win back moments in their half, but the gaps were too big, so we corrected it at half-time.
“It was a magnificent performance from Joao [Pedro]. He has given me that since I have come to the club.
“For the lads to come from behind and show their character makes me very happy head coach. I’m learning all the time about my team, about what we’re capable of.”
Player of the match for Chelsea, Pedro, said: “The coach said [at half-time] to try to be calm, and to try put our game on the pitch.
“The second half of the game was more open. Cole [Palmer] is a brilliant player when he is on the pitch – he is a special player.
“It is very positive for us because people have a lot of doubt about us. I think today we showed our power. We need to rest and now focus on the Premier League.”
