Antonio Conte stood by his Napoli players despite his team's early exit from the Champions League, insisting he is proud and satisfied with their efforts.

Italian champions Napoli lost 3-2 to Chelsea on Wednesday, with Joao Pedro's second-half double lifting the Blues into the top eight.

Napoli, meanwhile, finished in 30th place, one point short of the play-offs.

It marked the first time Napoli lost a Champions League game when ahead at half-time for just the second time, having lost 3-1 to Real Madrid in March 2017 (W19 D5).

But Conte felt his injury-ravaged team could not give much more.

"We feel great pride and satisfaction, because despite missing more than half the squad, we played, if not on the same level, then even better than Chelsea, and deserved a lot more," he told Sky Sport Italia, as reported by Football Italia.

"I am so proud of our lads, because we pressed them, created chances, fought them for every ball. It's a pity, we deserved to at least get into the play-offs.

"Their quality in the final third was decisive. The problem is that Chelsea didn't even have that many scoring opportunities, but when they got into those positions, they hurt you.

"We got ourselves into good situations and some crosses could be decisive, but we need to improve. I still say it was an impressive performance. We were not afraid, we attacked them, we accepted duels, leaving space behind us, and I think, played good football.

Conte suggested Napoli's biggest failure came last week, when they drew 1-1 with FC Copenhagen.

He added: "I told the lads that the regret was in Copenhagen, where we simply couldn't let that win slip through our fingers.

"It forced us to be in this situation against a top club. Don't forget Chelsea won the Club World Cup, they have extraordinary players on the field, the bench and even left in the stands."

Napoli's focus will now turn back to defending their Serie A title, though after last weekend's 3-0 defeat to Juventus, they are nine points behind leaders Inter.