Conte: Napoli ‘put pressure on the teams at the top’ with 1-0 Cagliari victory
Antonio Conte says that Napoli have ‘put a bit of pressure on the teams at the top’ after their 1-0 victory away against Cagliari in Serie A on Friday evening, their fourth win in as many matches, which has temporarily sent them above Milan and into second place in the league table.
A goal from Scott McTominay after just over a minute was enough for the Partenopei to hold onto at the Unipol Domus, as Conte’s side prevented their hosts from having any shots on target across the 90 minutes.
This was also the first clean sheet that Napoli have managed to keep in 11 matches.
You can see how the action unfolded on the Football Italia Liveblog.
Conte reviews Napoli’s 1-0 victory over Cagliari: ‘Nobody should stop us from looking ahead’
Despite their victory, Conte feels that there is still room for improvement in terms of Napoli’s performance. He feels that getting key players like McTominay, Kevin De Bruyne, Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Stanislav Lobotka back to ‘100%’ will be key, though.
“We made too many mistakes. We could have done better and commanded the game more given that Cagliari didn’t come to press,” Conte told DAZN after full-time.
“We looked for the second goal in the second half, anything can happen in these sorts of games. Now we go into the (international) break with three points, waiting on the others.
“Three points further into the Champions League spots, we’ve been extraordinary over the last seven months to stay in the top positions. We’re looking at those in front of us, but we’re not making any empty promises. It doesn’t take much to get dragged back by those behind us.”
Before Friday, Napoli had not kept a clean sheet in any competition since their 2-0 win away against Lazio on January 4, their first game of the calendar year.
“It’s important to record a clean sheet after 11 games,” said Conte. “Cagliari didn’t have a shot on goal today. Being able to defend well requires everyone. There was great application and desire. The guys understood the importance of the match, even if we struggled to materialise that.”
Napoli’s defence of their 2024-25 Scudetto was completely obliterated by injuries. At certain stages, Conte had a full starting XI unavailable through injury. But, today, De Bruyne and McTominay were able to start alongside each other for the first time in almost five months, dating back to a 3-1 win over Inter back in October .
“Obviously having some players back is important, but what counts is them being at 100%,” Conte explained.
“Anguissa and McTominay aren’t ‘brilliant’ again yet, Kevin (De Bruyne) I thought was doing well. Lobotka struggled a little bit more, and we still have to get Rrahmani and Di Lorenzo back. Neres is difficult, I think.
“We’ve held our own over the last seven months, now we have to qualify for the Champions League, but we know that other teams want that too. Nobody should stop us from looking ahead. Today we’ve put a bit of pressure on the teams at the top.”