Antonio Conte, the manager of Napoli, has good memories of his time at Inter Milan, but he stated on Friday that his team will not give up when his league leaders play the defending champions in a Serie A game.
Conte turned around Inter and helped them end Juventus’ nine-year hold on the Scudetto, ending their run in the 2020–21 season to win the title for the first time since their treble-winning campaign in 2009–10.
With 25 points after 11 games, Conte’s team is currently leading Serie A, one point ahead of Inter ahead of Sunday’s match at the San Siro.
“It’s definitely nice to return to where I worked and won.
“Yes, two happy years,” Conte told reporters.
“It was a wonderful experience that I carry within me, like all the past ones that I lived to the fullest.”
Napoli’s winning run in Serie A came to a grinding halt against Atalanta last weekend when Conte’s side were beaten 3-0 and the Italian said he is in no mood to drop three points again against Simone Inzaghi’s team.
“The three points is always important, it is inevitable that we face a team that today, for everything they have shown, is the strongest team,” Conte said.
“We are not going to San Siro to wave the white flag before starting, but convinced to play our cards.
“Then we will see what happens. We are preparing in a major way, as we always do.
“It will be an important test, we will measure ourselves against the best and it will be important to understand our progress.
” Do not forget that we arrive at the top of the table… and the objective is to remain at the top.”
When asked about Romelu Lukaku’s form, Conte said he was sick of hearing about the Belgian striker, who has only scored one goal in his last four appearances for Napoli.
“At every blessed conference there is always the question about Lukaku.
“It becomes a bit, not annoying, but we are talking about the team.
“Lukaku’s growth depends on the growth of the team,” Conte said.
“But I am confident because I see them every day, they want to work and improve.
“I see a lot of commitment and I would not reduce it to a single player. It is not fair to the others.”
