Why Napoli Boss Antonio Conte Apologised to Kevin De Bruyne On Star’s Manchester City Return

Antonio Conte apologised to Kevin de Bruyne last night following his return to old club Manchester City in the Champions League being cut short.

The Belgian playmaker made his first appearance back at the Etihad as a Napoli player last night as the two clubs did battle in Europe’s elite competition.

It was a relatively quickfire comeback to Manchester for De Bruyne who only departed the club on a free transfer at the end of last season.

The Italian giants – who won the Scudetto last season – were delighted to snap him up and felt he could make a significant impact against his former employers as Napoli looked to get off to a flier in the League Phase.

As it happened, however, that ideal scenario could hardly have been further from what actually transpired and 34-year-old De Bruyne was hauled off as a substitution within less than half an hour by manager Conte.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYKmWzh5YwM

That was because of an early red card for Napoli’s Giovanni Di Lorenzo who had fouled striker Erling Haaland. It was De Bruyne that Conte chose to sacrifice over the likes of Scott McTominay or Rasmus Hojlund and the Italian coach insisted at full-time that it was “the only thing” he could do.

He also apologised to both supporters and the Belgian himself as he knows how important De Bruyne would have felt it to be the main man on the night for his club.

Kevin de Bruyne was subbed off vs Man City inside 30 minutes

“We were all left with a bitter taste in our mouths,” Conte admitted. “It’s disappointing, we prepared for the match the way we played it in the first 20 minutes and the sending off changed it.

“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.”

Napoli start to the 2025/6 season and De Bruyne’s stats

Haaland and Jeremy Doku were the scorers on the night for City as they beat their Serie A opponents 2-0 to kickstart their campaign with three valuable points.

It already sets up Pep Guardiola’s lads in a better position than last season when they seriously risked being knocked out of the tournament with few points in the newly revamped group.

De Bruyne has made three appearances for Napoli in the league thus far since he joined and scored two goals.

Those came against Sassuolo and Fiorentina with the other outing being played vs Cagliari in a 1-0 win. Napoli sit top of their domestic league with three wins from three and all nine points to boot.