Edin Dzeko cancelled out a Lorenzo Insigne penalty, while Samir Handanovic and the woodwork allowed Inter to take a point away from Napoli, but Milan could leapfrog them both.
This was a Scudetto showdown, as only one point separated the leaders from Napoli and Milan, even if the Nerazzurri had a game in hand. Kalidou Koulibaly made his comeback after winning the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal. Alessandro Bastoni and coach Simone Inzaghi were suspended, with Hirving Lozano, Axel Tuanzebe, Joaquin Correa, Robin Gosens and Matias Vecino injured.
It was immediately frantic, Giovanni Di Lorenzo drilling inches wide, but during that Piotr Zielinski pull-back, Stefan de Vrij had caught Victor Osimhen on the back of the ankle. After a VAR review, the referee awarded a penalty, which Lorenzo Insigne converted.
Serie A Liveblog: Napoli-Inter, Lazio-Bologna and Torino-Venezia
Zielinski almost made it 2-0 on 12 minutes, his curler smashing the outside of the post from the edge of the area.
Matteo Politano limped off against his former club with a calf problem, while Insigne turned an acrobatic volley over and Denzel Dumfries failed to keep his shot on target from Lautaro Martinez’s lay-off.
It was all Napoli in the first half, but Inter equalised within 30 seconds of the restart. Edin Dzeko’s header on a Lautaro Martinez cross was scuffed, but it bounced off Di Lorenzo’s shin and the Bosnian reacted quickly to rifle the rebound in off the underside of the bar from a tricky angle.
Osimhen intercepted a poor Marcelo Brozovic pass to force a difficult save at the near post from Samir Handanovic.
At the other end, Koulibaly made a decisive interception to stop Dumfries tapping in the Ivan Perisic cross.
A deflected Insigne cross was just beyond Osimhen, but Eljif Elmas at the back post was denied by a desperate Handanovic save.
Napoli 1-1 Inter
Insigne pen 7 (N), Dzeko 47 (I)
With this sort of cowardly display, Napoli will NEVER win the Serie A.
Their football reminds me of Arsenal. They are afraid to take risks in the final third.
@Cypher what kind of risks do you mean? Napoli played an even game vs an Inter club with more depth and experienced players, the core of whom have played together longer. Politano’s early injury was unfortunate. Napoli remain in the hunt…
A Napoli win would have really put the cat amongst the pigeons, but this result still keeps it all very tight.
The clown is actually right for once. Napoli are a joke and only raise their game against Juve. Always the bridesmaid and never able to go above a certain level. It is not their fault as they are a second tier club in terms of their budget, stadium and infrastructure. If we can gain some momentum and defeat Shinter I will be happy to do Milan a favor, but something tells me they will choke again.
It remains making interesting for scudetto challenge. Milan perhaps can beat Samp tonight so make them leading serie A table temporarily. It will be interesting after Inter complete their match against Bologna so both Milan and Inter will have same number of game played.
@Yepe Milan will have to play against the top 5 and will lose points but Inter already did and still top with a match in hand. So for them going top will be meaningless at this point in time and should focus on keeping their players fit.