Inter vs Napoli: Serie A title race set to go down to the wire after Scott McTominay heroics
The Scotland star is one of the key characters in an epic battle that could end in a play-off if both teams win all their remaining games
Aurelio Di Laurentiis made a movie about Napoli’s glorious 2023 Serie A triumph. And he intends to produce another about the current campaign. “I hope to release it in cinemas in June,” the Partenopei president revealed in an interview with Radio Crc last week, “and I’m also discussing it with streaming platforms. The film of the Scudetto was successful, so I asked myself, ‘Why don’t we tell every Napoli season in the same way?’”
As every cinephile knows, the sequel is nearly never as good as the original, but this particular follow-up could be one of those beloved exceptions to the rule – whether Napoli win this season’s Scudetto or not. Indeed, what makes the 2024-25 Serie A title race so riveting is that even with just five rounds remaining, nobody has any idea how it’s going to end.
While Napoli’s victory two years ago was historic (their first since the days of Diego Maradona) and led to a seismic eruption of joy felt all across the footballing world, the final outcome was never really in doubt from about January on.
This time around, though, we have two compelling protagonists in Napoli and Inter locked together at the top of the table in a fight that really could go either way, while the stellar supporting cast features two fantastic characters in Simone Inzaghi and Antonio Conte, as well as Scott McTominay, the unlikely hero who has already played a key role in setting the scene for a wonderfully dramatic finale…
SSC Napoli v Palermo – Coppa ItaliaGetty Images Sport
Unlocking ‘misprofiled’ McTominay
Most Manchester United fans were happy to see the back of McTominay when he left for Naples last summer. An awful lot of them have changed their tune now, though, with the Scotland international enjoying the best season of his career while his former club are set for their worst-ever Premier League finish.
Some will, of course, argue that McTominay is simply flourishing in Italy because Serie A is not as strong as the Premier League. But, in reality, it has much more to do with the way in which he is being utilised.
As McTominay has pointed out himself, he was essentially “misprofiled” at Old Trafford primarily because of his imposing frame, which led to him being used as a No.6 or centre-back. Conte, though, was so desperate to sign the 28-year-old because he was convinced that he could do far more damage as an attacking midfielder.
“Scott has goals in his blood,” the Italian told DAZN last September. “He’s very good at moving forward, has good technique as well as height and physicality. He has, in his DNA, a good number of goals.” Conte was spot on.
‘Lord of the Midfield’
McTominay has already scored nine times in Serie A, making this the most prolific debut season we’ve seen from a Napoli midfielder since club legend Marek Hamsik, 17 years ago. Of course, the United academy graduate always looked like a good fit for a Conte team, but the surprise, as captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo pointed out, is “the sheer scale of the impact he had right from the start”.
“He is an extraordinary lad and immediately put himself at the disposal of the group,” Di Lorenzo told DAZN.
It certainly helped that McTominay went out of his way to embrace the local culture (and cuisine!) but, according to sporting director Giovanni Manna, Napoli also played their part by making the summer signing feel as if he were at “the centre of a project”.
McTominay has responded in kind by taking on the mantle of talisman, with the Gazzetta dello Sport going as far as to label him “the lord of the midfield” after his double in the 3-0 win over Empoli on April 13.
He was both dominant and decisive again in last week’s 1-0 win at Monza, breaking the deadlock in a Napoli game for the sixth time this season with a towering header that secured his side a first win on the road for three months.
‘Hurts to lose like this’
McTominay’s goal also drew Napoli level on points with Inter at the summit of the Serie A standings – and that’s where they remain, as just over 24 hours after that vital victory at the Stadio Brianteo, Inter suffered a devastating defeat in Bologna.
Inzaghi’s side were clearly – and unsurprisingly – still feeling the effects of their gruelling midweek Champions League quarter-final clash with Bayern Munich, but were nonetheless set to claim a draw that would have put them back on top of the table with five rounds remaining thanks to a typically diligent defensive display.
However, they switched off for a split-second in the fourth minute of injury time and in-form Bologna punished them dearly, with Yanni Bisseck unintentionally flicking a throw-in into the path of Riccardo Orsolini, who sparked wild scenes of celebration at the Renato Dall’Ara – and also in Naples – with a sensational scissors-kick into the bottom-left corner of the Inter goal.
Inzaghi and his players were upset with the officials for allowing Bologna to take the throw-in from much further up the field from where the ball had gone out, but the coach ultimately admitted that they only had themselves to blame for throwing away a precious point.
“We should’ve been more focused,” Inzaghi conceded in his post-match interview on DAZN. “There is disappointment, as we expended a lot of energy, so it’s disappointing to lose this way. The ball simply should not have been allowed to get to Orsolini… It was a very even match, which is why it hurts to lose like this. But we will get back on our feet. The season does not end in Bologna.”
On the contrary, the title run-in has only really just begun, for both Inter and Napoli.
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Fixture list favours Napoli
Reigning champions Inter have been most people’s favourites to prevail since the start of the season, but Fabio Capello is among several pundits to have changed his mind after a weekend that turned everything “upside down”. The reason for the change of heart is obvious: the fixture list.
For starters, Napoli have only been playing once a week since the turn of the year. Last year’s historically bad title defence saw them fail to qualify for any continental competition at all, while they were knocked out of the Coppa Italia at the start of December.
By complete contrast, Inter’s squad has been pushed to breaking point by an insane schedule caused by competing on three fronts right up until Wednesday, when they suffered a shock 3-0 Coppa Italia semi-final second-leg loss to AC Milan. And things aren’t going to get any easier for the Nerazzurri in the coming weeks, as they have to take on Barcelona, arguably Europe’s strongest side, in between their remaining Serie A assignments.
There’s also the rather significant fact that Inter’s Serie A run-in is much tougher than Napoli’s. The Nerazzurri arguably only have one ‘easy’ game, at home to Verona, while they still have to take on Champions League chasers Roma and Lazio (albeit at San Siro), and face tricky trips to Torino and Como.
Napoli’s matches are by no means straightforward as they’ll have to deal with three relegation-threatened teams (as it stands) in Lecce, Cagliari and Parma, but Genoa are already safe and the fact that 10th-placed Torino are the only top-half team they’ve still to play means the fixtures are very much in their favour.
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‘I don’t want to be massacred’
Listening to Conte of late, though, you’d have absolutely no idea that Napoli are in such an advantageous position, with the infamously combustible coach having picked a most inopportune time to pick yet another very public fight with an employer.
“I have admiration and respect for the president,” Conte said on DAZN after the win over Monza. “But Napoli asked me to give a helping hand, and I am doing that, but the Napoli fans want to win, and they have this ambition. If they don’t win, they can become nasty.
“I have to calculate everything, I am not stupid. I put a lot of pressure on myself, but I also need the right weapons to fight with, otherwise it’s a massacre and I don’t want to be massacred.”
In fairness to the former Juventus, Chelsea and Inter boss, some of his complaints are valid. Rafa Benitez flagged the fact that Napoli’s training facilities are sub-standard more than a decade ago and nothing much has changed in interim, which is why Conte believes that the Napoli squad has been hit so hard by muscular issues this season.
There’s also no disputing the claim that at least some of the money made from selling star winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to Paris Saint-Germain should have been invested in signing something resembling a worthy replacement. Instead, De Laurentiis and Manna brought in AC Milan flop Noah Okafor with predictably disastrous results (he’s featured just four times since arriving and for a grand total of 36 minutes!).
AC Monza v SSC Napoli – Serie AGetty Images Sport
‘Conte’s words could hurt the team’
However, Conte really could have kept quiet for a few more weeks for the sake of the championship challenge, before having clear-the-air talks with De Laurentiis at the end of the season.
“The whole controversy left me a bit perplexed,” Capello admitted in the Gazzetta dello Sport. “Conte’s words could hurt the team, so I’m curious to see if the Napoli players can move past this.”
He’s not alone in that regard. The whole of Italy is gripped by the most engrossing title race in Europe’s ‘Big Five’ leagues. Inter undoubtedly have the stronger squad but, as Inzaghi admitted after the back-to-back losses to Bologna and Milan, his troops are now feeling the mental and physical strain of playing twice a week, every week, since the start of the season.
For Napoli, the challenge is really only mental. Conte has done a fine job portraying his team as admirable underdogs up until this point (and to a certain degree of justification, given the Partenopei finished 10th last season) but, as Capello pointed out, they are now the undoubted favourites as we approach the final month of the season, which brings with it a whole lot more pressure. The title is clearly there for the taking – provided Conte & Co. don’t self-destruct.
Of course, there’s even the intriguing possibility of the Scudetto being decided in a one-off playoff if the two teams finish level of points after 38 rounds, given the head-to-head record is all-square after a pair of 1-1 draws, at San Siro and the Maradona.
It might not come to that, obviously, but no matter what happens between now and the end of May, De Laurentiis’ film on the 2024-25 campaign should be another big hit at the box office.
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