Antonio Conte believes that Napoli will have to rely on the atmosphere inside the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona to beat Chelsea in the Champions League. 

Conte takes on his former club in Naples on Wednesday in their final league phase clash, with the Partenopei 25th in the 36-team table, one place outside the play-offs. 

The Napoli boss has only won one of his five games against Chelsea since leaving his post there (D1 L3), although that one win did come in his most recent game against them. 

However, the only previous meetings between Napoli and Chelsea came in the 2011-12 Champions League, with the Blues eliminating the Italian side in the last 16. 

Conte highlighted the importance of the home fans in this must-win clash, especially given that Napoli have lost just one of their last 20 Champions League matches in front of their own supporters (W12 D7).

"We could have fixed the situation against Copenhagen but weren't good enough. Now it's Chelsea, the club world champions," Conte said.

"I know them very well, the vision they have, the investments they make, the ambition they have.

"We will have to try and give everything and also rely on our strong ally – the Stadio Maradona, and we can't underestimate that. 

"The fans know that the result will have to be decisive. We know what it's like to play with the support of our fans behind us. It would be nice to see a blue wave pushing us on."

Conte was also dealt with more injury blows, with David Neres and Vanja Milinkovic-Savic joining an already extensive injury list. 

Former Chelsea duo Kevin De Bruyne and Billy Gilmour are also absent, while Frank Anguissa, Amir Rrahmani, Sam Beukema and Matteo Politano are also unavailable. 

The Napoli boss was boosted by the return of Romelu Lukaku during their 3-0 defeat to Juventus last weekend, but he says they are in the midst of an injury crisis.

"It never ends," Conte joked. "We have to be optimistic though. We thought we'd seen it all in December.

"We had a player that started to become decisive for us in Neres, who has, instead, had to have surgery. 

"We have to be optimistic, but also be prepared for the worst. That's our job, even when things aren’t going the right way. 

"I have a group of players who are ready to move forwards.

"We can't feel sorry for ourselves, we are giving everything, and maybe we haven’t done that at certain points. But there's no point in looking at the past."

Conte then hit back at comments made by Juventus boss Luciano Spalletti following their dominant Serie A victory over the weekend. 

Jonathan David, Kenan Yildiz and Filip Kostic were all on target, with the result keeping Napoli in fourth and nine points adrift of leaders Inter. 

After the game, Spalletti referenced to Napoli as the "former" champions of Italy, a comment Conte believed was not necessary. 

"I'd like to take a break after that game, especially when you have three in quick succession. I don't understand what he said," Conte said.

"Former champions? If he said something like that, it wasn't a great sentence, it was an unfortunate phrase. 

"We still wear the Scudetto on our chest and that deserves respect. I would have never allowed myself to say something like that to another team.

"I'm sorry, because Luciano Spalletti is a great coach, but he has to be a little more careful when he speaks. 

"He can't say that there are still 16 games left if he thinks we're doing so badly – he's already taken the Scudetto off us!

"I'm sorry because we've done so much to earn it, and we deserve respect. Good luck to him."