Simone Inzaghi insists Inter deserved to beat Napoli in this evening’s 1-1 draw at San Siro, especially after a draining Champions League win over Arsenal. ‘We dominated the second half.’
The Nerazzurri had the opportunity to leapfrog Antonio Conte’s side and go top of the table with a victory, but had to fight back from the Scott McTominay opener on a corner kick routine.
Hakan Calhanoglu was both hero and villain, because while he bent Alex Meret’s glove back for the equaliser, he fired a penalty against the upright – the first in 18 that he has failed to convert.
“I congratulated the team, if there was one side that should’ve won, then it was Inter. The second half was dominated by us. We went behind on a set play situation where we should’ve done better, but we kept our heads and did not allow Napoli practically anything,” Inzaghi told DAZN.
While Napoli are not in Europe this season and have all week to prepare for these games, Inter fought their way to a 1-0 victory over Premier League side Arsenal midweek.
“After all that we did against Arsenal and the energy we used up, I really didn’t expect us to be this impressive. I usually call on my bench more often, but we were in such good shape that I didn’t want to mess with anything that we were doing. We hit the woodwork twice, missed a penalty, so I don’t know what more we could’ve done,” continued Inzaghi.
“We could probably have made more of our chances, but let us not forget the strength of the side we were facing, what we had done on Wednesday, so overall the lads did really well.”
Inzaghi sees Inter improvement
Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram were such a fruitful partnership last season, but are they losing some of that magic?
“They worked hard for the team and kept us solid. As I said, after all that we did midweek, I had to congratulate them. As a coach, I have to leave the result to one side and focus on the performance, which was excellent against a quality opponent,” noted Inzaghi.
“I said this would be a very balanced campaign and that is proving to be true, but I saw a wonderful Inter tonight. Napoli have so many fast strikers, but Yann Sommer practically didn’t have a save to make against the current Serie A leaders.”
So far, the head-to-head battles have not gone Inter’s way, losing to Milan, then drawing at home to both Juventus and Napoli.
Curiously, Inter are yet to concede a single Champions League goal in four games, despite allowing more shots on target than in Serie A. What is causing the difference in their clean sheet record?
“We are trying to work on that and there have been improvements lately. Our last two performances are reassuring, I have a lot of confidence in the side and physically they really impressed me today,” continued Inzaghi.
“There is an element of luck there too, as today McTominay was kept onside by his marker, there are some situations that can hit the woodwork and go out rather than in. We have to keep working with this humility, in our last 10 games we’ve played eight wins and two draws, so considering we played teams like Arsenal and Napoli, that is not bad.
“However, we are Inter, so it should’ve been 10 wins out of 10.”
This result leaves the title race wide open, as Napoli are still the leaders, but only one point clear of a huddle including Inter, Atalanta, Lazio and Fiorentina, while Juventus are just one point behind them.
