´It´s like if Inter had no Martinez´ – McTominay hails Napoli spirit amid injury crisis

Scott McTominay lauded Napoli’s spirit in the face of adversity after Sunday’s draw with Inter, questioning how the Nerazzurri would fare if they had several star players injured.

The Serie A title rivals could not be separated in a 2-2 draw at San Siro as McTominay twice equalised for Napoli, following goals from Federico Dimarco and Hakan Calhanoglu.

The draw leaves Napoli third in the table, four points adrift of Inter at the summit and one point back of second-placed AC Milan, with as many as five teams harbouring realistic title hopes.

McTominay has now scored in three different Serie A matches against Inter, the first opponent against whom he has done so since arriving from Manchester United.

But he was keen to praise the efforts of his team-mates, particularly with Romelu Lukaku, Billy Gilmour, Kevin De Bruyne and David Neres all sidelined and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa yet to return from the Africa Cup of Nations.

“I always thought we were in the game,” McTominay told DAZN. “The players are giving everything.

“There’s no Anguissa, no Lukaku, no Gilmour, no De Bruyne, no [Amir] Rrahmani at the start of the season, Neres is injured…

“It’s like if Inter had no Lautaro Martinez, no [Marcus] Thuram, no [Nicolo] Barella, no [Hakan] Calhanoglu.

“It’s difficult when we are pushing in 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 never give up here.”

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis concurred with McTominay, writing in a post on X: “What a fantastic match! Fabulous Napoli.

“With the nine players who have been absent for most of the season, what would Napoli have achieved so far?”

The major negative from Napoli’s perspective was a red card for boss Antonio Conte, who was sent to the stands for his furious reaction to Inter being awarded a penalty, which Calhanoglu converted for 2-1.

Speaking in Conte’s absence, assistant Cristian Stellini said Napoli had demonstrated why they won the Scudetto last season.

He said: “I won’t discuss the penalty incident, as we already had a rather complicated week in that sense, so it’s best to just look beyond that and focus on the great performance of this team.

“The reaction after the penalty gives us great confidence and strength. We had a team that proved once again in a difficult arena and against a strong opponent that we deserved to win the title last season.”