Inter defender Federico Dimarco is glad that he and his teammates managed to earn a result against Napoli even if they weren’t able to take all three points.
Speaking to Italian broadcaster DAZN after the match, the 24-year-old emphasized that the most important thing was to avoid defeat against direct Scudetto rivals in tough circumstances.
Inter will have had no doubt that their opponents were up for it at the Stadio Diego Maradona, with the Partenopei making a blistering start count by earning and then converting a penalty to go 1-0 up.
After having already lost to Napoli last weekend, the Nerazzurri looked to be at serious risk of losing to both their main title rivals in succession as the home side had the better of the first half.
However, Inter looked renewed in the second half, responding by equalizing almost immediately after the restart and then showing much more control of the game to at least ensure that they didn’t allow Napoli to take all three points.
“We came here to play our game and win, however, for how it was going, the important thing was not to lose because then Napoli would have gone ahead of us,” Dimarco reflected.
“We’re not totally happy but somewhat,” he added. “We could have won and taken home the victory, but we are happy all the same. We must continue to work hard and then we’ll eventually get what we want.”
On his communication with Ivan Perisic on the left, Dimarco remarked that “We always do. Whether I play or someone else plays.”
“We always try to help each other out, we communicate about the game,” he explained, “such as when to step out, press, or attack.”
On the performance by he and his teammates, Dimarco said that “We are satisfied, but I think we could have done better in the first half, they got forward too easily.”
“At the end of the first half we talked amongst ourselves,” he went on, “we came back on the pitch in a totally different way, we found the right balance and could have even won it.”
“Coming here and conceding a goal from a penalty after five minutes isn’t going to be easy for anyone,” he stressed. “We did well to stay in the game, then in games like this the episodes are important, in the second half they went more in our favour and the game changed.”