Antonio Conte says he is ‘sorry’ for Kevin De Bruyne after the midfielder was substituted in the 26th minute in Napoli’s Champions League defeat to Manchester City on Thursday night.
De Bruyne left City after 10 years at the end of last season and joined Serie A champions Napoli as a free agent in the summer.
The 34-year-old came up against his former club for the first game of Napoli’s Champions League campaign but City ran out 2-0 winners with goals from Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku.
Napoli were reduced to 10 men in the 21st minute when Giovanni Di Lorenzo was given a straight red card for his foul on Haaland, who was racing through on goal.
Conte then opted to withdraw De Bruyne shortly after and brought on Mathias Olivera in order to help Napoli cope defensively.
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Speaking after Napoli’s defeat at the Etihad Stadium, Conte said: ‘We were all left with a bitter taste in our mouths.
‘It’s disappointing, we prepared for the match the way we played it in the first 20 minutes and the sending off changed it. I don’t want to say whether it was right or wrong, but for 20 minutes I saw a great attitude and I think City would have had a hard time against us.
‘It’s already difficult to get out of here unscathed, but if you’re down to 10 men it becomes impossible.
‘Sometimes the devil takes a turn, there’s a cruel twist of fate. Last year we didn’t have a sending off, today in the Champions League we did.
‘It was the only thing I could do… I felt sorry for the boy, who we robbed of the satisfaction of playing against his old club. But I also robbed myself of the chance to count on him.
‘In the first 20 minutes I had the feeling that we had prepared the match in the right way, going for the high goal. I’m sorry, these are games where a sending off ruins them and you can’t do the exact right thing.’
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