Antonio Conte said Napoli deserved more from their 2-2 draw with Roma, adding that his players are pushing beyond their boundaries to try and seal European football for next season.
Conte’s team came from behind twice to seal a share of the spoils at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, with debutant Alisson Santos netting an 82nd-minute equaliser.
Napoli had fallen behind through Donyell Malen’s sixth-minute finish, only for Leonardo Spinazzola to restore parity just before the break with a deflected strike over Mile Svilar.
Malen then re-established Roma’s advantage from the penalty spot after Wesley was fouled by Amir Rrahmani, but substitute Santos popped up with the leveller on his Serie A debut.
Indeed, it was a result that extended Napoli’s unbeaten home league run to 23 matches, doing so for the first time since a streak of 31 between February 1986 and February 1988.
Conte’s side did, however, fall further behind Inter, with the gap now 11 points to the league leaders. The Napoli boss thinks his team’s Scudetto title defence is over, and has instead placed full focus on European qualification.
“Fighting back twice to hold Roma was also no mean feat, and I think if this was a boxing match, we’d have won it on points,” Conte said, as quoted by Football Italia.
“It was an entertaining game played at a high level of intensity, there were difficulties playing because the pressing was so high by both teams. It was an English-style match.
“We’ve got to continue, knowing that we are building our future in the next 13 games, so what we have next season will depend on what we do in these 13 games, and what European competition we manage to qualify for.
“It won’t be easy, as the other teams in the race are well-drilled and have resources, but we are pushing beyond our boundaries.”
Napoli are given an 85.3% chance of finishing in the Champions League place by the Opta supercomputer, though Conte acknowledged the difficulty of achieving that task.
Based on Sunday’s evidence, new signing Santos could prove crucial as Napoli aim to seal a top-four finish.
In his 20-minute cameo, Santos had joint-team-high totals for shots (two), while he also created two chances, level with Giovane, with those totals more than any other Napoli player.
But Conte urged caution when talking about his new Brazilian arrivals, saying: “Both Giovane and Alisson are young players that the club signed in January, because we had those transfer limitations and had to sell first in order to buy to balance the books.
“They have not even been training with us for two weeks, so they need to understand our movements.
“Alisson is better at taking men on than Giovane, whereas Giovane is more of a striker.
“They have made a massive change in their careers, but they have shown humility and are ready to take that time to understand how we do things here.”