Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri defended his team against some harsh criticism from owner Aurelio De Laurentiis following a 3-1 Champions League round-of-16 first leg loss to Real Madrid.
The defending champions came from behind on Wednesday with goals from Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos and Casemiro after Lorenzo Insigne's extraordinary goal for Napoli less than 10 minutes into the match at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
The Italian forward struck a shot from way outside the area, catching Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas out of position. However, the visitors couldn't hold on to their lead against a Madrid team that delivered one of its best performances for weeks.
Playing in the last 16 for only the second time, Napoli were one game short of matching their unbeaten record of 19 matches in all competitions. They hadn't lost since a 2-1 defeat by Juventus in Serie A last October, a streak that included 12 victories.
However, owner De Laurentiis told Mediaset Premium following the match that, other than Insigne, the team hadn't showed the trademark Neapolitan grit that he'd come to expect from his club, while also questioning some of Sarri's selection.
Sarri responded in his postmatch news conference, saying: "I am at training every day and I am the one who chooses. The president can express his ideas, I'd rather he expressed them directly to me, but in the end I decide.
"We had [Arkadiusz] Milik on the bench because we know that in his condition he cannot do more than 10-11 minutes, but in that spell he could give us something. Why experiment? We could've lost 5-0 in that case.
"If we make that many mistakes, it's difficult to find courage. If you misplace the second pass, you won't build any pressure. Our choice of passing wasn't always on point.
"Playing Real Madrid in this stadium may well have influenced some of our younger players, but you do grow up through games like this. It's all valuable experience."
Sarri did admit that his team's mistakes were costly, especially after an opening 20 minutes that the Napoli boss characterized as his team's best of the match.
He said: "We faced the best team in the world but it is a pity that we made so many mistakes with the ball because we don't usually do that.
"While we were not at our best tonight I think we can compete with them if we play our best football. We have only a few chances now but we will try to give everything and see what happens.''
Information from PA Sport was used in this report.