It ends all square at San Siro
Napoli picked up a point away to Inter to remain top of the Serie A standings at the end of Week 11. Scott McTominay opened the scoring 20 minutes into the contest with an impressive reaction finish, while Hakan Calhanoglu drew the hosts level at the end of the first half to make it 1-1.
Here’s what boss Antonio Conte had to say:
“I’d said we wouldn’t come to San Siro to make up the numbers and so it proved. We accepted the one-on-one duels all over the pitch against the best side in Italy. I’m pleased. We’re continuing our hard work and developing. We’re raising our level as otherwise you can’t come to Milan twice and put in such good performances.
“I saw so much intensity and the players really applied themselves well. It’s just a shame we made some mistakes with our passing and precision when bringing the ball out in basic areas, but I realise there was a hostile atmosphere and you can’t always keep your head in such circumstances. The work that we’re doing on this technical aspect will certainly bear its fruits in the future.
“We’ve been together for four months and I can see progress compared with teams that have been working with the same coach for many years. We need to keep going down this development pathway and I think we’re already at a good point now.”
As for the penalty awarded to Inter, the coach felt VAR should have intervened.
“The referee got it wrong and needed a VAR intervention. You can’t say that the referee made a decision and VAR can’t intervene because it’s down to the referee. VAR is such a useful tool, but it has to be used in the right way and it needs to correct clear mistakes. If there’s an oversight, VAR needs to contact the referee to prevent such wrong decisions from having an impact on the contest, such as the wrong decision today to award a non-existent spot kick.”
Here’s what Matteo Politano had to say:
“We came to the home of the Italian champions and we went toe to toe with them. We played really well and we’re pleased. In the first part of the league, we’ve played three very tough away games recently, one in Torino and two in Milan, and we’ve headed back to Naples with points to show for our strong performances.
“I think that the draw is a fair result because Inter played with so much intensity, but we were up to the task and we leave San Siro knowing that we showed what we’re capable of.
Inter 1-1 Napoli (HT: 1-1)
Scorers: McTominay 23, Calhanoglu 43.
INTER: Sommer; Pavard, Acerbi, Bastoni (De Vrij 89), Dumfries, Barella, Calhanoglu (Zielinski 82), Mkhitaryan, Dimarco (Darmian 82), Thuram (Taremi 82), Lautaro Martinez (Arnautovic 89).
Coach: Simone Inzaghi.
NAPOLI: Meret; Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Buongiorno, Olivera, Anguissa, Gilmour (Lobotka 60), McTominay, Politano (Ngonge 84), Kvaratskhelia, Lukaku (Simeone 77).
Coach: Antonio Conte.
Referee: Mariani.
Booked: Dumfries and Inzaghi.
