Scott McTominay goal rescues vital win for Napoli against Monza in Serie A title race

SSC Napoli’s Serie A title ambitions are alive despite a difficult afternoon at bottom side AC Monza, winning 1-0 to draw level with leaders Inter Milan – and surely seal Monza’s relegation too, with the hosts now taking just two points of the last 39 available.

From the first whistle, Monza elected to sit deep and force the visitors to try and breach their defence. Though Scott McTominay forced an unorthodox save from a free-kick and Amir Rrahmani powered a header just wide, I Biancorossi were comfortably holding off Antonio Conte’s charges.

And the home side almost made the title challengers pay just before the half-hour mark, when Gaetano Castrovili cut in from the right wing and skipped past his marker, but his shot drifted a whisker wide of Alex Meret’s post.

A mis-hit Romelu Lukaku shot from close range summed up a disappointing half for Napoli, who had 11 shots yet seldom looked like scoring, though things could have been worse had Dany Mota not deflected teammate Alessandro Bianco’s shot off target.

This fixture was supposed to provide respite for Gli Azzurri, who had failed to win any of their previous five away league trips, but they continued to be frustrated after the break, failing to have a shot on goal until the 69th minute when Matteo Politano was played through by Giacomo Raspadori, only for Stefano Turati to make a fine stop.

But four minutes later, the breakthrough finally arrived and Raspadori was once again the orchestrator, curling a cross onto the forehead of McTominay, who nodded past the committed Turati.

Dynamic substitute Raspadori came close to doubling the lead via a deflected strike with 10 minutes remaining, but one goal was plenty for the Neapolitans, who have now kept eight clean sheets in nine games against teams that began the round in the bottom six.

In turn, they kept Monza 11 points from safety – now with just five matches to play. Such is their predicament, the end of Monza’s three-year stint in the Italian top flight could mathematically be confirmed as early as the FT whistle against Juventus next Sunday.