Luciano Spalletti says that he has no remorse over Napoli’s elimination from the Champions League, but concedes that the team arrived at the game ‘a little out of breath.’ Milan took the lead in the first half through Olivier Giroud before Victor Osimhen pulled back a late equaliser with just two minutes left on the clock. It was a tough blow for the Partenopei, who dominated both legs in terms of possession and chance creation, something Spalletti pointed to in his post-match interview with Sky Sport Italia (as quoted by TuttoNapoli):
Is there anything you would not do again?
“First of all, congratulations are due to AC Milan. They were really good. Then you compliment the team. Then it’s clear that you can’t go back. We already have too much pain about this non-progression of the round, then if we add remorse… We don’t have any remorse for what was done. We got there a little bit out of breath after that round of matches with the international break. The 4-0 was too much for what the level of the team is, but in the subsequent games I don’t think we left anything. A little short of breath and some naivete, because we were naïve tonight. Then a little inexperienced in the choices of the moments of the game and then injustices.”
In two games: 37 shots, 9 on goal. What does that mean?
“I don’t know, we can put a lot of other numbers on it. Then the result counts. In the aspect of football we develop I am very satisfied. Then you have to be very good at these preventives, to make a tactical half-foul that we failed to do either in the first leg or in the return and that cost us two goals. We spent a couple of bookings in less dangerous situations…”
“There will be no risk of arriving there drained. I have serious guys who know very well what reaction you have to have in defeats, we put them in the game-building reasoning. We told ourselves at the beginning that we were going to continue playing like this anyway. You can congratulate me all you want, I’m inconsolable (laughs, ed.).”
