Napoli Pushes For European Qualification As Conte Sees Boundaries Expanded

Antonio Conte felt Napoli merited more than a 2-2 draw against Roma, stressing that the squad is stretching limits to secure European football next season after twice coming from behind at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in a tense Serie A contest.

The result extended Napoli’s unbeaten Serie A home sequence to 23 league matches, a run last bettered between February 1986 and February 1988, yet Conte’s side slipped 11 points adrift of leaders Inter and the Napoli coach now treats the Scudetto defence as finished, focusing instead on qualification targets.

Roma struck first when Donyell Malen finished in the sixth minute, but Napoli responded just before half-time as Leonardo Spinazzola’s deflected effort looped over Mile Svilar, then Malen converted a penalty after Wesley drew a foul from Amir Rrahmani, before debutant Alisson Santos struck an 82nd-minute leveller.

Conte believed the balance of play favoured Napoli across the 90 minutes and used a boxing comparison to describe the performance, saying: "Fighting back twice to hold Roma was also no mean feat, and I think if this was a boxing match, we’d have won it on points," Conte said, as quoted by Football Italia. It was an entertaining game played at a high level of intensity, there were difficulties playing because the pressing was so high by both teams. It was an English-style match.

Conte underlined how the remaining league programme will define Napoli’s position in European competition, explaining: "We’ve got to continue, knowing that we are building our future in the next 13 games, so what we have next season will depend on what we do in these 13 games, and what European competition we manage to qualify for. It won’t be easy, as the other teams in the race are well-drilled and have resources, but we are pushing beyond our boundaries."

Analytical projections still rate Napoli’s chances of a top-four Serie A finish highly, with the Opta supercomputer assigning an 85.3% probability of ending in a Champions League place, yet Conte acknowledged that such numbers do not lessen the difficulty of the run-in or the pressure from rival clubs chasing the same objective.

Napoli debutant Santos shines against Roma in Serie A

Alisson Santos offered a brief but effective contribution in the Roma draw, entering from the bench for his Serie A debut and, across roughly 20 minutes, recording joint team-high figures for attempts and chances created, matching Giovane in both categories and exceeding the output of every other Napoli player on the pitch.

Some of those key Napoli and Roma attacking metrics from the match are shown below.

Conte, however, asked for patience with both Brazilian signings and detailed the constraints Napoli faced in January, stating: "Both Giovane and Alisson are young players that the club signed in January, because we had those transfer limitations and had to sell first in order to buy to balance the books. They have not even been training with us for two weeks, so they need to understand our movements. Alisson is better at taking men on than Giovane, whereas Giovane is more of a striker. They have made a massive change in their careers, but they have shown humility and are ready to take that time to understand how we do things here."

With the Scudetto race effectively out of reach, the draw with Roma underlined both Napoli’s resilience at home and the scale of the task ahead, as Conte leans on experienced players and recent arrivals such as Santos and Giovane to turn strong underlying performances into results that secure European football for next season.