Italian journalist Paolo Condo believes that Inter got a point that could prove to be very important for their Scudetto ambitions in their draw against Napoli on Saturday.
Writing in his column in today’s print edition of Rome-based newspaper La Repubblica, Condo emphasized that the Nerazzurri seemed to take a careful approach to earn a key point against a direct title rival.
Inter struggled with the Partenopei’s pressure and slick possession in the first half at the Maradona, before finding a foothold and becoming more proactive in the second half after their equalizer.
However, neither team really went all out in pushing for the winner, and both seemed to see the result as a significant enough point that it was not worth risking to go for all three points.
Condo believes that Inter didn’t play beyond themselves because they had already secured a result which could still be important for defending their Serie A title.
“Something very rare happened in the head-to-head clash between Napoli and Inter,” he writes, “no offside was flagged in the entire match.”
“The detail helps to demonstrate the calculating attitude shown by both teams,” he goes on. “They tried to win, Napoli for the whole of the first half and Inter for the final stages of the second half, but they did so in a prudent way.”
“There were several counterattacks over a lot of space, and especially with numerical equality between the teams,” he emphasized.
“Situations that required a difficult final ball in order to turn into goals, something which meant that the defenses could always intercept them, or neutralize the threat by playing the striker offside, and so even players of the quality of Barella and Insigne didn’t attempt them,” he elaborates.
“They always judged it to be too risky,” he continues, “because in the event of a turnover their teammates would have had to change direction in a rush, better to play it back and maintain possession, waiting for the team to get back into shape to neutralize any danger but also any opportunity,” he explains.
“Thinking logically, Inter only have just one game left against a team in the top six,” he writes, “the away match at Juve, while against the rest of the teams they’ve managed fourteen wins, a draw (against Sampdoria), and zero losses so far.”
“Of course, nothing guarantees that the results so far will be repeated in the future,” he explains, “but these numbers help explain their confidence that a point in Naples will be enough.”
