Antonio Conte felt that Napoli “gave everything” and believes that they deserved more after they had been held on Sunday to a 1-1 draw of Udinese in Serie A.
Scott McTominay scored the opener for Napoli in the 37th minute with a thumping header, but they were written back by Jurgen Ekkelenkamp's long -distance strike only three minutes later.
Napoli expanded their unbeaten run to nine games in the Serie A, but has now signed their last two (both 1-1). It is the first time that they have registered successive draws in the Italian top flight since the last two games of 2023-24 under Francesco Calzona.
Conte's side generally had 18 chances, with 11 of them coming into the first half, and the 55-year-old rested those missed opportunities to convert more during the control of the match before the break.
“It's a shame because I think we have earned more than a point tonight,” Conte told Dazn.
“The second half took off slowly, but in the first half we made many opportunities, we have checked the game, but if you do not convert those opportunities, this will cause problems.
“The boys left the field that was empty tonight, they gave everything to win the victory. It was unbeaten our ninth game, so believe me from the heart when I say this is extraordinary.”
For the first time since December 2013 (3-3 in that case), Udinese avoided an away game against Napoli in the Serie A in the Serie A and broke a series of 10 consecutive victories for the Diego Armando Maradona in the competition.
Conte admitted that Napoli sometimes had trouble losing the physicality and skill of Udinese.
“Udinese is a very physical team with players of real quality that I think will soon move to large clubs,” Conte noted.
“We did what we always do, busy, but they had players such as Lorenzo Lucca who dominate in the air and are always a threat.”
With their second consecutive stalemate, after that 1-1 draw with Roma last week, Napoli missed the chance to clearly move six points at the top of the Serie A.
However, they have 55 points, four free from Inter, which Fiorentina organizes on Monday, while the third placed Atalanta, which hit Verona 5-0 on Saturday, are 50.
Only three times before Napoli had more points at this stage (24 games) in one Serie A season in the era of three points per win: 56 in 2015-16, 63 in 2017-18 and 65 in 2022-23.
“I can no longer ask the boys to do, otherwise we run the risk that the machine will leave the rails and break the engine. If someone is disappointed about two draws, it is not my problem,” Conte said a news conference.
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