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Scott McTominay said recently that he hopes to carry on playing top-level football for another decade. And, if he does, will he ever have another year better than the last one? In 2025, he won Serie A and helped deliver Scotland to their first World Cup this century – scoring sensational goals in the games that sealed both achievements. He has described himself as “obsessive” when it comes to self-improvement, but some feats are hard to top.
Still, if he was looking to set some intentions for 2026, there are worse places to do it than San Siro. On Sunday night, Napoli’s title defence would be severely tested away to Inter. But every time they strayed into danger, McTominay led them back out.
We might only be at the midway stage of this Serie A season, but the stakes already felt high. Inter, on a run of six straight league victories, had established a four-point lead over Napoli at the top. Milan’s draw away to Fiorentina earlier on Sunday meant they were two above their city rivals as well. A win for the Nerazzurri here would allow them to start pulling away.
Recent history was against them. Inter have had a woeful record in the so-called “scontri diretti” – head-to-head games against their biggest domestic competitors. They had won none of their past 13 games against Napoli, Juventus and Milan combined.
This time, though, felt different. Napoli are in the grip of an injury crisis, with David Neres – whose breakout performances over the past two months had been essential to sustaining their title defence – the latest addition to an absentee list that already included Kevin De Bruyne, Frank Anguissa, Romelu Lukaku and Billy Gilmour.
Inter could scarcely ask for a better opportunity to get one over at last on a direct rival. When Federico Dimarco put them ahead in the ninth minute, materialising beside Marcus Thuram’s left shoulder to receive a no-look pass and bury an unstoppable finish into the far corner, it felt as though this must be the moment.
McTominay had been at fault, his pocket picked by Piotr Zielinski at the start of the move. But this was also Christian Chivu’s side at their best, ruthlessly direct and all on the same page with their timing and movement. When Inter look like this, it can be tempting to wonder how anyone else stands a chance.
The answer, this season, is often found at the other end of the pitch. This is not Simone Inzaghi’s Inter team of two years ago, who won the league conceding just 22 times. They are most of the way to matching that figure already in 2025-26. When Leonardo Spinazzola launched a raid down the left in the 26th minute, Luis Henrique and Alessandro Bastoni both allowed themselves to be drawn to him, neither tracking the run of Eljif Elmas inside. The first Napoli player fed the second, who cut a square ball back for McTominay to convert from the near corner of the six-yard box.
Another sumptuous team move; another moment when we might need to remind ourselves that McTominay is not, in fact, a centre-forward. This was the sort of space you might expect to see attacked by a team’s No 9, not a central midfielder who has been forced – first by the arrival of De Bruyne, and more recently by Napoli’s injury crisis – to take on much greater defensive responsibilities this season than last.
But this is who McTominay has become in Naples, a relentless presence who seems to be in all places at once. The newspaper Il Corriere della Sera would compare him after this performance to a robot, though the online platform Il Napolista framed him as the opposite – a very human throwback to “once upon a time, when the role [of midfielder] demanded sweat and not storytelling”. They also called him “Scott McKing”.
His right to rule this weekend did not go unchallenged. Following their equaliser, Napoli initially looked the more likely team to score again. Rasmus Højlund fired inches wide after being released with an opportunistic long pass by his goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic at the start of the second half.
But a contentious penalty soon afterwards allowed Inter to reclaim their lead instead. It was a foul under current interpretations of the law, Amir Rrahmani making an honest play at the ball but ultimately following through and standing on the foot of Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Criticism of the decision stemmed more from familiar frustrations over the role of VAR. The referee Daniele Doveri had let play flow all game and appeared to have made his own judgment call on this incident before being called to take a second look.
A spot-kick was finally awarded. Antonio Conte responded by throwing a bottle, kicking a ball away and screaming “Vergognatevi!” – “You should be ashamed” repeatedly at the match officials, actions which predictably led to his being shown a red card.
In the buildup to this game, some sections of the Italian press had sought to build up the rivalry between Chivu and Conte. The former was in charge at Parma last season during a bad-tempered 0-0 draw against the Partenopei in the penultimate round that ended with both men being sent off. Chivu downplayed any acrimony at his pre-game press conference, saying a young manager like him could only learn from someone like Conte. “But we give too much weight to managers,” he added. “The real protagonists in football are the players and the fans.”
By the time Hakan Calhanoglu smashed his penalty in off the post to make it 2-1 to Inter, the worry was that this would instead be another big occasion remembered for debates about the referee. The previous meeting between these two sides had seen Napoli awarded a less clear-cut penalty. Conspiracy theories were starting to brew.
But this game was not finished. McTominay had more left to say. He appeared to have been fouled when Matteo Politano served a cross into the Inter box from the right in the 81st minute, held down by a defender to prevent him from jumping. This time, the lack of a whistle served him just fine.
Noa Lang, introduced moments earlier as a Napoli substitute, barely managed to keep the ball in, hooking it back into the danger area as it was about to sail out for a goal-kick. McTominay met it with a first-time volley to level the scores again at 2-2. Another goal that a centre-forward might be proud of. And enough to secure a point. Inter did hit the post through Mkhitaryan in stoppage time, but the draw felt a fair result.
On paper, it was not a bad outcome for either team. Inter might feel more frustrated, having led in the second half, but they did ultimately maintain their advantage this weekend over both their closest rivals. Napoli, meanwhile, did enough to stay in the hunt, at the moment when they had appeared most vulnerable.
“This team will not give in or back down one millimetre,” said McTominay in a post-game interview. “Imagine if Inter were without Thuram, Lautaro Martínez, Nicolò Barella, Calhanoglu …”
The only player Napoli might truly not be able to do without was the one speaking. McTominay has a long way to go to top his extraordinary 2025. But this was a very solid start.
