Antonio Conte has spoken of his pride at returning to an English club in charge of the reigning champions of Italy as Napoli prepare to embark on a new Champions League campaign.
The boss was sharing his thoughts at the pre-match media conference the day before Napoli face Manchester City at Etihad Stadium.
“It's always nice for me to come back to England,” Conte began. “I had two wonderful experiences in a top-level league. Coming here with Napoli to play in Europe's elite competition after winning the Scudetto fills me with pride.
“We're up against a team whose history speaks for itself. This is a top club with a fantastic coach who has won so much in his career. We go into this match with enthusiasm and humility. We want to see if we can match up to teams like this. It's a way for us to understand how far along we've come, how much we've improved – a useful test that will give us some insight to help us keep growing.
“We come into this competition with a bounce in our step and we'll feed off the positive energy you get from playing on the international stage and that we get from our fans. We're certainly want to go a long way in Europe. We're really motivated to show that we deserve to be here.
“This is a challenge we must tackle with pride, without letting any fears or worries get to us. We have to be brave if we want to play our best football on this stage
“We started building this team last year and we're still growing. We have our identity and our shape, which we want to maintain here in Manchester. We'll play the game with our ideas, our identity and the qualties we've shown until now.
“As I said, this is a thrilling journey and one we must undertake with confidence – without getting carried away or beaten up about anything. We're are the start of the season and we have ambitious ideas.”
