Insigne: Loss to Man City unfair on Napoli
Napoli star Lorenzo Insigne lamented the defeat to Group F leader Manchester City as the Italian side's last-16 hopes took a hit.
Published : Nov 02, 2017 11:15 IST
Lorenzo Insigne believes Wednesday's Champions League defeat to high-flying Manchester City was unfair on Napoli as its last-16 hopes were dealt a major blow.
Pep Guardiola's men advanced to the knockout round of the competition thanks to an absorbing 4-2 victory in Naples .
Napoli and City played out a thrilling contest in last month's reverse fixture in Manchester – won 3-2 by the Premier League leader – and another match to remember caught fire when Insigne gave the host a dream start in the 21st minute.
City, on the backfoot due to Napoli's intense pressing game early, responded with back-to-back goals from defensive duo Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones, the latter putting the visitor ahead three minutes into the second half.
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Napoli midfielder Jorginho equalised with a penalty just past the hour-mark for the Serie A leader but City showcased its counter-attacking prowess as Sergio Aguero's goal - which broke the club's scoring record - and Raheem Sterling's late strike settled the Group F clash.
"The result is unfair considering the performance we put in," Insigne told Mediaset Premium . "There are some regrets, as we put the best team in Europe under the cosh for a good long while.
"We must use this to face Sunday's game with the same mentality in Serie A."
Napoli faces an uphill battle to reach the last 16, with back-to-back defeats leaving Maurizio Sarri's men six points adrift of second-placed Shakhtar Donetsk with only two games to play.
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Insigne, however, has not given up hope of proxgressing in the Champions League with games against Shakhtar and Feyenoord to come.
The Italy international added: "We still believe, because if we keep playing like this, we'll get some satisfying moments.
"There are regrets, as we could've won it. At 2-2, their goalkeeper [Ederson] made a great save on [Jose] Callejon and we immediately conceded after that.
"We have to study the details and whittle down some of the errors."