Napoli-Inter, even though it comes on Matchday 8, will be remembered as a key turning point in the race for the Scudetto: not only for the teams involved, but also because of the extremely tight standings at the top.
Conte vs Chivu, however, is a clash that was already worth the Scudetto 5 months ago: in May 2025, Parma-Napoli could have been the title day for the Azzurri, a celebration postponed amid red cards and protests.
5 months ago, Chivu and Conte were sent off
On Matchday 37 of last season, Parma and Napoli faced off at the Tardini while Inzaghi’s Inter played Lazio in Milan. The teams were separated by just one point and the matches were played simultaneously.
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Inter was leading 2-1 until the 90th minute, when Pedro scored the final 2-2 equalizer. Napoli’s bench found out, and the ending of the match against Parma became even more important.
Just moments later, the tension became uncontrollable. Parma complained about the length of stoppage time that was about to be announced: at that moment, the benches got mixed up.
Before the assistant announced 6 minutes of stoppage time (which later became 7), Conte’s anger exploded, particularly against Antonio Gagliardi, a former collaborator of Conte himself: “You couldn’t wait, you couldn’t wait! You’re a piece of s***, I’ll come for you afterwards.”
Referee Doveri approached and sent off both Conte and Chivu, who actually seemed among the calmest at the time. In the final moments, a penalty for Napoli was also (rightly) revoked after a monitor review, due to a foul by Simeone before Neres was brought down in the box.
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The match ended 0-0 and the Scudetto was postponed to the final matchday, which Napoli won against Cagliari.
Conte: “Parma played for time”, Chivu: “Me, the usual idiot”
After the match, Antonio Conte explained the reasons for what happened: “I was really annoyed by the time-wasting Parma did in the second half, I found it excessive in every way. And on top of that, they were even complaining about the stoppage time, which was only 6 minutes.”
“In the second half we played very little, once it was a cramp, another time a blow to the head, then the doctor came in, then went out, in my opinion too much was allowed. […] I can understand that there are different objectives, but everything has a limit. That’s what bothered me”
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After the match, Chivu instead played it down: “I consider myself the usual idiot who gets into a brawl and gets slapped, I’m guilty of that. I put my arms out to separate people, the referee interpreted it differently, I don’t know what information he got.”
An extremely heated ending that influenced last year’s Scudetto, and just 5 months later both coaches are fighting for it again from Matchday 8.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.
📸 Alessandro Sabattini – 2025 Getty Images
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