Conte struggles to comprehend loss, Mazzarri thrilled

21 May 2012 03:14

Juventus coach Antonio Conte was shattered by his side's 2-0 loss to Napoli in the Coppa Italia final at the Stadio Olimpico.

Second-half goals from Edinson Cavani and Marek Hamsik gave Napoli a deserved victory and inflicted defeat on the Serie A champions, who had enjoyed an unbeaten campaign in the league.

"I do not like to lose - especially in a final," Conte told Rai Sport.

"This match has to make us understand that we must always be at 100 per cent. Napoli had something more than us tonight. This is a young group and we must always keep in mind what we needed to do in order to win.

"We had some players who were not 100 per cent fit, like Stephan Lichtsteiner and Arturo Vidal. The regrets are there, because we did not want to lose."

Conte said he sought no comfort from their faultless Serie A campaign in the wake of their Cup defeat.

"We got defeated, so we cannot be pleased, even if after such a great season. I don't like to lose and I don't think anyone here at Juventus should like to lose, not the players, not the club, anyone," he said.

"Let's try to learn something from this defeat and look ahead of us, even if this season we were great at not losing a single match, except for tonight.

"But tonight it was an important night, we lost the chance to win an important trophy such as Coppa Italia and we need to leave with a great regret, in spite of the scudetto we won, we cannot say 'Yes, but we won the Scudetto', we had the chance to win another trophy and we lost it, we need to learn to always win."

Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri has said that his side beat the odds to overcome the unbeaten force Juve.

Conte's men had not lost a competitive game in 2011-12, but Juventus could not complete a cup double on Sunday, as Mazzarri's side scored twice in the second half.

"I am thrilled, it seemed unthinkable to beat Juventus this season," Mazzarri told Rai Sport.

"The entire team has done something extraordinary in the last three years. This is an exceptional group that has now been rewarded."