Conte: ‘I feel Napoli were under-rated this season’

Antonio Conte did not deny this is his final game on the Napoli bench against Udinese. ‘I think some of what we did this season was under-rated.’

It kicks off at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona at 17.00 UK time (18.00 CEST).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from today’s final round of Serie A games on the Liveblog.

While there is nothing official yet, Conte has all but confirmed this is his last match for the Partenopei, despite having one more year left on his contract.

He won the Scudetto last season, then the Supercoppa Italiana this term, steering his side to Champions League qualification again.

“It is important to get a positive result always, whether it’s the last, first or in between, we must always try to achieve the maximum objective,” Conte told DAZN Italia.

“I said in the post-Pisa press conference that you can only really understand Napoli and what it means for the fans by working here. It is so passionate, and everything gets dialled up to the maximum, which also makes it more difficult than in other clubs.

“Winning here really is more satisfying than anywhere else.”

How does Conte feel going into the final game of his Napoli career?

“My first emotion is the same as usual before games, the first thing I think about is trying to have a good game, get a good result. We must end the season well, because this is a season where in my view we did some very important things that were perhaps under-rated.

“The lads deserve to end the campaign on a positive note,” concluded the coach, who did not push back on the framing of the question.

Today is also the 77th birthday of Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis, who was in the news this week with reports he had turned down an offer worth over €2 billion from an American consortium to buy the club.