Important victory for the Napoli who beat 2-1 the Genoa and returns to the top of the table, awaiting the result of Atalanta who will take to the field on Sunday against Empoli. After a dominated first half of the match that ended with a 2-goal advantage, in the second half the Azzurri risked an equalizer several times. In the post-game Antonio Conte he underlined this several times: “I don't know if Genoa has changed or we have changed – he declared on Dazn -. I am very satisfied with the first half, a game dominated far and wide. The only thing we said to each other at half-time was not to let them back into the game, but they succeeded. I know this stadium very well, the slightest spark is enough to ignite the fans and complicate a match that seemed to be in absolute control. I'm very happy with what I saw in the first half, with the play we showed and with the pressure we had. The recovery must remain imprinted in everyone's brains, it must be clear. I told the players, the second 45 minutes shouldn't belong to us because it means pulling the plug and putting everything back into play. And this is not right: for what I see this week, for the work we do and for what we saw in the first half of the race. We put an absurd match back together. If you have a minimum of ambition and if you want to try to stay there and annoy you you have to change and stay on track for 95 minutes”.
“If you are intelligent, you can build something from these races”
Conte continues: “We have to defend by attacking, dominating the game. We don't have to defend ourselves because fear takes over and the inertia of the match goes in their favor. This is the most important step we need to take. When I talk about work in progress, time and patience I am also referring to these things. Today we were lucky and took home the 3 pointsin other situations we would have cried bitter tears. Since I don't want to cry, then it's right that the boys enjoy the 3 points but at the same time understand that matches must be played from start to finish, always trying to keep your foot on the accelerator. Instead, I didn't like anything in the second half.” The Napoli coach, at his 150th career victory in Serie A, talks about his journey: “It's been a long time since the first one, I've had my experiences not only in Italy but also with the national team and especially in England. I'm an experienced coach, I try to beat myself because I want to be better than I was a year before or a day before. Let's all try together to be as much of a nuisance as possible this year. From these matches if you are intelligent you build something, if you only see the 3 points you don't build anything. Perhaps we had the best first half of all, I didn't expect the second half to be like this even though there had been a warning in the locker room. Maybe I felt like it… I have a group of serious guys who know where we can improve, today they will go home happy with the 3 points but also a little disappointed with a second half in which we put a result back into play that seemed to have been achieved “.
