Defiant Conte insists Napoli still believe they can win Serie A

Antonio Conte struck a determined tone as he urged Napoli to keep believing in their Serie A title push despite recent setbacks.

Inter hold the advantage as the season enters its final stretch, sitting three points clear at the top of the table with nine matches left to play.

Napoli have won just one of their last seven league outings, seeing them lose their place at the Serie A summit, with AC Milan next up at home.

The Opta supercomputer now rates their chances of winning the Scudetto at 13.2%, with Inter the favourites at 84.5%.

“We’d be mad not to believe at this stage — nine games left, three points off the top. With all our strengths and flaws, we’re still there, in a position nobody expected, to be honest,” Conte told reporters on Saturday.

“It’s our right to believe, after we give everything we’ve got and always leave the pitch with our shirts soaked in sweat.

“Only one team can win the Scudetto, but the Champions League places are in the balance too. We must always look forward and are only focused on first place.”

Napoli have also suffered some recent bad luck, with several players getting injured during the international break.

“Andre-Frank Anguissa had an adductor problem with Cameroon; he had two training sessions with us, and we’re monitoring the situation carefully,” Conte said.

“Noah Okafor [Switzerland] had a problem with his adductor too, and was out for two days. He’s a player we need to get back into shape, but he’s struggling with that.”

Conte confirmed that Brazilian winger David Neres is available against Milan after recovering from a hamstring injury, but Italian Leonardo Spinazzola is out with a knock.

“Neres is fully recovered, he’s made great progress, and he will definitely play — maybe not from the start, but he’ll feature for sure,” Conte added.

Since the start of February, Napoli are winless in six of their seven Serie A matches (D5 L1) – one more than in their first 22 games in the current top-flight season (D2 L3).

Furthermore, with only eight points earned since the start of matchday 23, the Partenopei would be 13th in the table in this period.

“I think we deserved better in recent weeks than our results would suggest,” Conte noted. “Unconsciously, results do affect the mentality of the players, and that is a mistake.

“It is a growth process, we need to recognise those moments we get wrong and work on them.”