McTominay: ‘Napoli don’t give up, imagine Inter without top stars’

Scott McTominay assures Napoli don’t know the meaning of the term ‘give up’ after listing all the absentees. ‘It’s like Inter without Lautaro Martinez, Marcus Thuram, Nicolò Barella and Hakan Calhanoglu.’

The title race went to the wire last term and on the strength of this match it could well be a repeat.

Federico Dimarco and Hakan Calhanoglu’s penalty had twice given Inter the lead, but McTominay’s brace clawed the Partenopei back to level terms in this 2-2 thriller.

“I always thought we were in the game,” McTominay told DAZN Italia before listing all the difficulties his team is dealing with right now.

“The players are giving everything. No Anguissa, no Lukaku, no Gilmour, no De Bruyne, no Rrahmani at the start of the season, Neres injured, I mean it’s as if Inter Milan had no Lautaro Martinez, no Thuram, no Barella, no Calhanoglu.

“It’s difficult when we are pushing every single game like this, it’s an absolute credit to the players, because the manager and the staff have put everything in place for us to succeed and do well, fair play to the boys, because we’ve got no ‘give up’ here.”

Naturally, McTominay was named Man of the Match by the Lega Serie A, and in the Football Italia Player Ratings.

McTominay certainly exemplified that refusal to give in when he recovered from an error in the build-up to the first Inter goal, going on to become the hero for Napoli by netting twice.

“Of course mistakes are part of football, you can’t go down, you have to stand up and try to do your best. Everyone makes mistakes in football, so I just want to give my best and help the team as much as possible.”

That approach was also noted by President Aurelio De Laurentiis on social media.

“Wonderful match! Fabulous Napoli. With the 9 players who have been absent for much of the season, what would Napoli have achieved by now?”

The result means the top three remain intact, as Milan were also held to a 1-1 draw today by Fiorentina.

Inter are the leaders with 43 points, followed by the Rossoneri with 40 and Napoli 39.

Roma caught the Partenopei and Juventus can do the same tomorrow evening, but the top three all have a game in hand to be played next week.

Juan Jesus had a great performance in defence and largely managed to neutralise Marcus Thuram, who kept trying to peel him out wide.

“Thuram is an experienced striker, but I studied all the players, and it was a strong team performance in a difficult arena like San Siro. There’s a long way to go, but it was important not to lose here, and we still have the Scudetto on our chests,” noted Juan Jesus on DAZN Italia.

Antonio Conte was sent off for protesting the penalty decision, kicking a ball into the stands and screaming into the face of the fourth official.

“The coach has his character, he is a winner, we know him. He’ll have his reasons, he fires us up, and we showed a strong reaction in a difficult stadium.”