Antonio Conte believes that his side was won in the Serie A-title race after their 2-1 home wins on AC Milan on Sunday.
Interinese had beat Udinese 2-1 earlier on Sunday, with this victory that Napoli moved back within three points of the Series A leaders, while Atalanta lost in third place in Fiorentina in third place.
Napoli had taken a 2-0 lead by goals from Matteo Politano and Romelu Lukaku, with Luka Jovic who went back for Milan in the 84th minute, although the hosts could hold.
Conte's side gets a 16% chance of getting the scudetto in the hands of the OPTA super computer, with Inter still the overwhelming favorites with 83.7%.
“It is an important result with which we can stay in Inter's Slipstream and distance ourselves from fifth place,” Conte told Dazn.
“The Champions League places were not even our original goal. We started to try to get to Europe, but now we are there, and after eight months of work it would be crazy not to believe in something extraordinary.”
Napoli dominated the first half, with five attempts, with three on goal, while Milan was unable to test Alex Meret.
Milan, who also missed a penalty in the second half,, however, forced Conte to adjust his tactical approach while pushing the second half, with 12 shots worth 2.19 expected goals. Four of their efforts were on goal, while Napoli had none.
“This is one of those days that I hate being a coach,” he said. “We dominated the first half, but let's not forget that AC Milan is a very good team … and that they strengthened in January.”
Scott Mctominay was omitted for flu symptoms, and Leonardo Spinazzola was sidelined with an injury, while David Neres returned to the starting line-up.
“We lost McTominay at the last minute, so I had to take the risk,” Conte explained.
“I also had to force the situation with Frank Anguisissa, who returned from international duty with an injury and David Neres had not played for long.”
Napoli had won only one of their previous seven league games before Sunday, and Conte said that this victory pursued a new sense of optimism in their title.
Even with that positivity, however, Conte insisted that his team took the rest of the season step by step.
“We must be aware that we do something extraordinary and wonderful,” he said.
“Yet we have to be fierce; there are eight games left, and then we will think about the future.”
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