Antonio Conte after Napoli’s draw v Genoa: “It’s annoying, this is football”

Serie A giants Napoli were held to a 2-2 draw by Genoa and they dropped vital points in the title race.

The Partenopei had gone ahead through Romelu Lukaku in the first but before the end of the first 45, but an Alex Meret own goal helped the Rossoblu go level.

Giacomo Raspadori’s well-taken goal brought Napoli ahead once again but towards the end of the game, Johan Vasquez’s bullet header made it 2-2.

After the game, Antonio Conte was asked about the draw and he stated that Napoli should not have dropped points and said, via TMW: “They had two shots on target and scored two goals. These games happen too. When you concede a goal you can always do better. It’s a shame because we should have won for what we produced.

Speaking further: “There’s still bitterness especially because we’re at the end, it’s annoying. This is football. Billing came on to avoid conceding on high balls and we conceded a header. I have little to reproach for the game and the effort. Eleven shots on target and you play the game but you tie it, you have to improve in these situations.”

He was also asked about the injury picked up by Stanislav Lobotka, who could miss the last few games of the season and had faced fitness problems in the last few weeks.

He said: “It’s inevitable that there’s bitterness now. We didn’t deserve to draw and lose points like this. We need to know that we played the bonus. Of the seven points we needed, we took one and now we have to win the next two if we want to aspire to win the championship. Today we lost another piece, Lobotka. We’ve never hung on to bad luck but we’ll always try to find the best solution.”

Inter are only one point behind Napoli in the table right now, but the Nerazzurri are yet to play Lazio and Como. Napoli play Parma and Cagliari in what will be an easier set of fixtures.

Kaustubh Pandey I GIFN