Chivu predicts Scudetto race will go to the wire after Inter draw with Napoli

Cristian Chivu believes as many as five teams are in with a chance of winning the Serie A title this season after his Inter side played out a 2-2 draw with Napoli on Sunday.

Inter missed the chance to move five points clear at the summit after Scott McTominay’s goals pegged them back twice in a tightly-contested affair at San Siro.

Federico Dimarco opened the scoring in the ninth minute for Inter before McTominay restored parity, but Inter retook the lead thanks to Hakan Calhanoglu’s 73rd-minute penalty.

McTominay would have the final say, though, scoring the equaliser nine minutes from time, with Inter’s poor form against the top sides in the division continuing.

Indeed, since the start of last season, Inter have not won any of their 13 matches against Napoli, Milan and Juventus across all competitions (D6 L7).

And Chivu believes that record could make for a close race for the Scudetto, with just seven points separating Juventus down in fifth and Inter at the top of the table.

The Opta supercomputer has assigned Inter a 69.6% chance of lifting the title, more than any other team in the division, but Napoli (14.9%), Milan (9.4%), Roma (3%), Juventus (3.4%) and even sixth-placed Como (0.3%) are all in with a shout, according to its season simulations.

“I think there’s four or five teams in this title race, I don’t even know what the points gap is, just that we, Napoli, Bologna and Milan all have a game in hand,” Chivu told reporters.

“We all know this will be a fight to the end.”

Inter were perhaps unlucky not to come away with the win, having won the expected goals (xG) battle, posting a total of 1.45 from 13 shots to Napoli’s 0.74 from seven attempts.

It was also the first time that Chivu’s men had drawn a game this season in Serie A play, with Chivu conceding that his side made mistakes after taking the lead.

“I saw two strong teams who did everything to win this game,” Chivu added.

“There are regrets that we twice took the lead and didn’t win, but it is never easy when you are up against a strong opponent.

“The regrets are that we probably didn’t keep a clear head to bring the result home, but Napoli deserve credit for never giving up and continuing to fight to the end to draw and even try to win.”

Chivu did, however, take positives from the game, particularly as Inter had lost the reverse fixture 3-1 in Naples back in October.

“I liked the attitude, the determination to keep pushing forward, even if we over-did it and sometimes found ourselves exposed with the passes for Hojlund,” Chivu said.

“We tried everything to create our football, aware that we were up against a strong opponent who could cause us problems.

“Napoli made it tough for us in the first 20 minutes of the second half, but then we started to keep the ball for longer periods and that was the situation building up to the penalty.

“It’s a pity, but these are two great teams who raised the level of what modern football and Serie A can be.

“We are left with the regret of not winning a head-to-head match, but it will be one big battle to the very end, scrapping for every single point.”