Napoli were stunned as they lost 6-2 to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Tuesday night, despite midfielder Scott McTominay scoring a creditable brace against their Dutch opponents. Antonio Conte's side came into the game following a 1-0 defeat to Torino and were hoping to bounce back, but were instead dealt a sobering defeat.
Napoli thrashed in Champions League
Conte's men headed to the Netherlands having won one and lost one of their opening two Champions League games. They lost to Manchester City and beat Sporting CP, and may well have seen their trip to Eindhoven as another potential three points. McTominay scored twice, netting the first after 31 minutes to open the scoring. His second, though, came in the 86th minute, with Napoli having conceded four. After his second, PSV scored twice more, leaving Conte furious on the touchline, and Napoli heading back to the drawing board.
AdvertisementAFPA remarkable game in Eindhoven
The Champions League clash sparked into life with McTominay's opener, a header at the near post, as PSV hit back to take a 2-1 lead into half-time; first, Alessandro Buongiorno awkwardly headed into his own goal to bring the Dutch side level, before Ismael Saibari finished well from the edge of the box to bring PSV ahead. Dennis Man scored a third for PSV 10 minutes after the restart, and Lorenzo Lucca was sent off with a quarter of an hour to go, leaving Napoli a man down. Man scored four minutes later, before McTominay completed his brace with another close-range header. Ricardo Pepe and Couhaib Driouech scored two more, with the latter a stunning strike from range.
PSV have endured a mixed start to their European campaign and came into the game off the back of a home defeat to Union Saint-Gilloise, and a draw in Germany with Bayer Leverkusen.
Conte fumes at humbling
Conte said post-match: "There is disappointment. These situations never happen by chance. There is a lot to work on. Last year, despite having few players, we won an extraordinary Scudetto because everyone went beyond their limits. Adding nine new players is too many, we were forced to.
"Seeing certain things in the locker room, I say that this year will be a difficult year. I'm not making excuses in advance. We were forced to make transfers because we had a very thin squad: it takes time and patience to integrate the new players. We all have to step up, myself first."
He concluded: "If you win, everything's fine; if you lose, everything's bad. Everyone had praised the choice of the four midfielders with De Bruyne. A good coach is the one who puts all the best players on the field from the start, finding the right alchemy. Playing with two attacking wingers? They don't give us balance"
AFPWhere do Napoli go from here?
Right-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo has also taken aim at his team-mates, insisting they are "fragile" after a disappointing display.
He said: "We made a poor showing. We are fragile. Last year we were rock solid, now we concede too many goals. We've lost our grit and balance. We need a dose of humility. You can't concede certain goals. There's always the feeling that others can hurt us."
Napoli currently sit third in Serie A, and are only one point behind leaders Milan. They have now lost two Champions League games, however, and face some tricky fixtures through the remainder of their European campaign; they face Eintracht Frankfurt, Qarabag, and Benfica in their final three European outings.
Their next Serie A outing comes against Inter, who are level on points with them in second-place. Last season, the two sides played out two 1-1 draws, but Conte will be desperate to see his side find a way to win this weekend.